The Hindu Business Line : Selling pressure in heavyweights

AFTER remaining fairly stable through the day's trading, the Sensex weakened at the end of the day to close at 5783.79 points, or 54.66 points lower. The S & P CNX Nifty also ended in the negative zone, with a 15.35 point decline to close at 1838.20 points.

Among the Sensex constituents, the selling pressure was evident in the heavyweights such as Reliance, Infosys Technologies, ONGC, ITC and ICICI Bank. Only 9 out of the 30-shares in the Sensex appreciated in value, with the major gainers being Hindustan Lever, Satyam Computers, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla.

The Sensex opened for the day at 5856.44 points, touched a high of 5867.07 (indicative of the firm trading pattern through the day) but touched a low of 5760.25 points by the end of the day's trading. Practically, all the major sectoral indices ended in the negative territory such as BSE IT, BSE Consumer Durables, BSE PSU and Bankex. The ones which bucked the trend were BSE Capital Goods, BSE- Healthcare (or Pharma) and BE FMCG Index.

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In the S & P CNX Nifty, the prominent gainers during the day were Tata Chemicals, BHEL, Tata Tea, MTNL and Cipla. Contrary to the trends in the Nifty, the CNX Nifty Junior and CNX Midcap 200 recorded a gain of 3.62 points (or 0.10 per cent) and 15.6 (or 0.93 per cent) respectively.

In the Nifty Junior, the significant gainers during the day were Punjab Tractors (4.06 per cent), Bongaigaon Refinery (3.51 per cent), Raymond (3.15 per cent), Gillette India (2.74 per cent), Syndicate Bank (2.62 per cent) and CMC (2.20 per cent). The prominent losers in the Junior Nifty were Hughes Software (6.16 per cent), IDBI (3.30 per cent), Andhra Bank (1.87 per cent) and Vysya Bank (1.84 per cent).

Among the significant gainers during the day were e-Serve International , Krebs Biochem, Rain Calcining, Mukand, Apollo Hospitals and DCW. Quite a few newly listed stocks such as Biocon, Petronet LNG and Power Trading Corporation were among the key gainers during the day.

The e-Serve International stock took centre stage in the day's trading activity, with the stock appreciating by Rs. 152.4 (or 24.19 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 782.40. The trading volumes in the stock shot up from 2410 shares on Thursday's trading to 42305 shares during the day's trading.

The sharp uptrend in the stock has to be seen in the light of the decision of Citibank Overseas Investment Corporation, the promoter of e-Serve to voluntary delist the company under the new SEBI Delisting Guidelines. The indicative price is said to be Rs 800 and the stock has reached that level in the day's trading.

The Biocon stock continued its northward journey, with the stock appreciating by Rs 113.55 (or 19.53 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 694.75. The trading volumes have slackened somewhat from 37.4 lakh shares on Thursday to 19.5 lakh shares during the day's trading. The stock, which listed at Rs 484.50 on April 7, has been on an uptrend since then.

Among the newly-listed stocks, the other gainer was Power Trading Corporation. The stock appreciated by Rs 3.05 (or 7.26 per cent) to close at Rs 45.05. The trading volumes in the stock rose from 1.50 crore shares on Thursday to 1.11 crore shares during the day's trading.

The Bank of Maharashtra was the other stock which was listed during the day in BSE and closed at Rs 38.95. The stock touched a high of 43.40 and a low of Rs 32.90.

The prominent losers during the day were Hughes Software, KEC International, IDBI, Infosys Technologies, Bhushan Steel and Rayban Sun Optics. Following the announcement of the fourth quarter results and guidance for 2004-05, the Hughes Software stock declined by Rs. 33 (or 6.23 per cent) to close at Rs 496.55. The trading volumes in the stock also rose sharply from 93698 shares on Thursday to 7.14 lakh shares during the day.