The Hindu Business Line : Weak techs halt market uptrend

While the Sensex lost 50.93 points to 5520.44 points, the S&P CNX Nifty declined by 11.90 points to 1750.15 points. With news that the Bharatiya Janata Party favours a "steadily strengthening rupee," tech stocks bore the brunt of selling pressure on Tuesday.

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The bellwether Infosys, which has 8.34 weightage in the Sensex, skid by Rs 178.5 to Rs 16.3; Satyam Computer plummeted by about Rs 15 to Rs 592.6; and Wipro declined by Rs 33.9 to Rs 1,376.7. The BSE technology index that is heavy with these stocks plunged by more than 20 points. The losers included Hughes Software, HCL Technologies, MphasiS BPFL and Polaris Software.

Stocks that bucked the trend were Mastek, Patni Computers, Tata InfoTech and Digital GlobalSoft. Ramco Systems, the enterprise software company, rose by Rs 22.65 to Rs 237.35. Gujarat Ambuja was a major loser among the Sensex constituents.

The stock fell by 4.20 per cent to Rs 287.20 on equity dilution. More than 2 lakh shares were traded on the BSE. The company exercised a call option on its foreign currency convertible bonds and converted $99.3 million worth of bonds into equity.

The broad market was positive, with 1,235 stocks appreciating compared to 560 stocks declining. Most of the action was in B1 stocks, wherein more than 75 per cent of the stocks appreciated. Notable gainers among the B1 stocks were Jindal Drilling, GIC Housing, Bank of Punjab, Daewoo Motors, Amara Raja, Punjab Communication, ITC Hotels and Sri Adhikari Brothers.

Oil refinery stocks were in the limelight on Tuesday. Bongaigaon Refineries rose by 6 per cent to Rs 74.35, Chennai Petroleum was up by 5.46 per cent to Rs 124.65, BPCL climbed by 3.02 per cent to Rs 487.60 and Indian Oil rose by 1.85 per cent to Rs 483.35. ONGC declined by Rs 4.8 to Rs 839.6 on the back of more than 10 lakh changing hands on the BSE. The stock has declined for two days by more than 1 per cent following the problem of stock allotment in the recently concluded public issue.

Helped by the PSU oil stocks and select public sector banks, the BSE PSU index closed the day with gains. Gainers on Tuesday's trading were Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank. According to market sources, mutual funds were buying into old economy stocks to prop up net asset values (NAV) of their schemes ahead of the financial year-end.

Bharti TeleVentures rose by 4.8 per cent to Rs 152.85 on the back of the company signing an agreement to join the South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE-4) consortium along with 15 other global telecom operators.

Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals was up 1.12 per cent to Rs 198.45. This in light of the company receiving the certificate of suitability by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines for its API product Cefadroxil Monohydrate. Matrix Lab, the bulk drug and formulation major, was boosted by block deals of over one lakh to Rs 1,420.65 (up by Rs 1.5). The company recently announced that it would merge Vera Labs, Fine Drugs and Chemicals, Medikon Labs and Calibre Engineering with itself.

Volumes were substantially higher in stocks of Voltas, Karur Vysya Bank, BEML, Bata India, FDC, Max India and Lyka Labs.

In the F&O segment of the NSE, the April futures of Nifty, Tata Steel, Reliance, Satyam Computer and SBI were the most active.