The Hindu Business Line : Bank stocks stay afloat amidst bear grip

The BSE Sensex opened the day as 5539.72 points and steadily fell to a low of 5399.05 points. It closed the day to 5414.94, down 120.75 points or 2.18 per cent.

The Nifty too mirrored such a picture closing the day at 1716.65 points down by 1.90 per cent. The overall market was bearish with about 1212 stocks declining as against 612 stocks gaining. Much of the decline was in the A and the B1 group of stocks.

Click here for table

On a day when there was across-the-board decline, index constituents such as HDFC, HLL, ONGC and Dr Reddy closed the day with gains. HLL bucked its three losing streak and ended the day with a marginal gain at Rs 144.80. In the case of HLL and HDFC more than 80 per cent of the traded quantity in the BSE were for delivery.

The trading interest in banking stocks continued for another day with most of the limelight on Federal Bank, J&K Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank and Andhra Bank, which closed the day with smart gains. Volumes were higher in bank stocks especially that of Vijaya Bank, Punjab National Bank, South Indian Bank, Karur Vysya Bank and Karnataka Bank.

Indian Overseas Bank touched a new lifetime high of Rs 49.95 on intraday trades. It closed the day at Rs 48.20 higher by about 2.7 per cent. About 33 lakh shares were traded in the BSE.

Major gainer in Thursday's trading was Sirpur Paper Mills and Pritish Nandy Communications. Other gainers include Kirloskar Oil Engines, IVRCL Infrastructure, Nova Petrochemicals and KEC International.

Mercator Lines hit the upper circuit with a 5 per cent rise to Rs 259.50, but selling pressure shaved off some gains to close at Rs 255.3. This could be in the backdrop of the company announcing that it has bagged a contract from MRPL worth Rs 190 crore.

Software stocks took a knock; the informational technology index of BSE lost about 2.41 per cent on Thursday. Leading the way was HCL Infosys, which declined by more than 6 per cent to Rs 712.05. The bellwether, Infosys plummeted by 2.14 per cent to Rs 4,924.90, losing more than Rs 100.

Close on the heels, were Wipro and Satyam Computers, which decline by more than 3 per cent each. However, MphasiS BFL and Digital GlobalSoft closed the day with gains. HCL Infosys, which was on an uptrend over the past two weeks on rumours that the IBM has picked up a stake in the company, but following the company's denial in the stock exchange, the stock fell by Rs 46 to Rs 714.6.

Aventis Pharma gained in light of its yearly results, though the results were not announced till the close of the trading session. The stock evinced buying interest and gained about 3.59 per cent to Rs 667.85. Other pharma stocks that closed with gains were Dr Reddy, Matrix Labs and Glaxo SmithKline Pharma.

Oil stocks skid into the negative territory. IOC, Indraprastha Gas, HPCL, BPCL, Bongaigaon Refineries and MRPL closed in the negative territory. GAIL India closed the day marginally with gains at Rs 210.95. Chennai Petroleum gained about Rs 2.25 to end the day at Rs 115.60. About 12.45 lakh shares were traded in the BSE.

Geojit Securities rose by about 3 per cent (Rs 2.50) to Rs 70.50 following news that it is considering a preferential allotment. Volumes were notably higher in stocks such as Elgitread India, Eicher, Paper Products, Rico Auto, Amtek Auto and Sintex Industries.