The Hindu Business Line : Volatility keeps heavies in negative territory

With the Government infusing some confidence over its stance in the offer for sale/public offers being made as a part of the disinvestment exercise, the markets shrugged off some weakness from Wednesday's trading. It witnessed a steady uptrend in the forenoon session; however, selling pressure dragged the Sensex down in the afternoon session.

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The Sensex opened for the day at 5639.83 points, touched a high of 5723.31 and a low of 5556.31 points, before settling marginally higher during the day. The advances-to-declines ratio stood at 0.74, with 810 stocks appreciating in value while 1,104 stocks logged declines.

Of the 30-share Sensex, only eight stocks appreciated during the day. Among the Sensex constituents, the prominent gainers were ITC, Larsen and Toubro, HDFC Bank and ONGC. Practically, all the prominent names ended in negative territory.

The S&P CNX Nifty declined by 21 points (or 1.18 per cent) to settle for the day at 1765.80 points. The five significant losers during the day were Shipping Corporation, NIIT, Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla and Bajaj Auto. The stocks that bucked the trend among the Nifty were VSNL, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Larsen and Toubro and ABB.

The CNX Nifty Junior suffered an even sharper fall, declining by 1.53 per cent to close at 3312.70 points. The prominent losers were Bank of India, Cummins India, Himachal Futuristic, Bharti Tele-Ventures and Ingersoll Rand. The gainers were Morepen Labs, Hughes Software, UTI Bank, Raymond, Punjab Tractors and CMC. CMC, which has an offer for sale open between February 23 and 28, witnessed a second successive uptrend day.

Among the prominent gainers during the day (largely outside these indices) were Today's Writing, Patni Computers, Eternit Everest, K Sera Sera, Jaiprakash Industries and Maruti Udyog.

On the second day of trading following its listing on Wednesday, the Patni Computers stock ended in positive territory. The stock gained Rs 16.1 to close for the day at Rs 249.3. Trading volumes in the stock soared from 60.50 lakh shares on Wednesday's trading to 61.29 lakh shares during the day.

The Eternit Everest stock was the other major gainer, with the stock appreciating by Rs 5.35 to close for the day at Rs 104.9. The trading volumes soared from 6,962 shares on Wednesday's trading to 74,290 shares during the day.

The K Sera Sera Productions stock witnessed an uptrend, with the stock price rising by Rs 3.1 to close for the day at Rs 65.15. The trading volumes also witnessed a modest improvement, rising from 20,859 shares on Wednesday's trading to 29,915 shares during the day. The uptrend in the stock has to be seen in the light of the company producing a movie in association with Varma Productions that is due to be released on February 27 all over India.

The significant losers were Gujarat NRE Coke, Arvind Mills, Bharat Earth Movers, Rolta India and IVRCL Infrastructures.

The Arvind Mills stock declined by Rs 2.45 to settle for the day at Rs 43.40. Selling pressure was also evident from trading volumes, which surged from 3.73 lakh shares on Wednesday's trading to 5.43 lakh shares during the day.

The Bharat Earth Movers stock was another prominent loser, with the stock declining by Rs 5.85 to settle for the day at Rs 160.9. Compared to 70,606 shares traded on Wednesday, the trading volumes jumped to 90,115 shares during the day.

The Rolta India stock shed Rs 2.35 to close for the day at Rs 78.85. The trading volumes in the stock inched up from 1.59 lakh shares on Wednesday to 1.63 lakh shares during the day.