The Hindu Business Line : Negative sentiments drag markets down

NEGATIVE sentiments prevailed in the markets on the last trading day of the week. After three consecutive days of upward movement, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell by 87.72 points (1.52 per cent) on Friday.

The index opened at 5,748.34 points, about nine points lower than the previous day's closing. The index fell sharply during the early trading sessions. It remained volatile after that and reached the day's low of 5,645.79 points. Key index heavyweights slipped into red as the index closed the day's trading at 5,669.58 points.

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On the BSE, most of the indices including BSE200, BSEPSU and BANKEX closed the day on a negative note.

On the NSE, the 50-stock S&P CNX Nifty fell 28.35 points (1.55 per cent) to 1804.45 points.

On the BSE, of the total 1,948 stocks that were traded, 799 advanced in value, 1,053 declined and the rest remained unchanged. Among the Sensex constituents, seven stocks advanced and the remaining declined.

Among the index heavyweights, the stocks of Reliance Industries dropped 1.6 per cent while Infosys Technologies shed 1.5 per cent. ONGC, ITC and ICICI Bank also ended the day on a negative note.

Key losers among the index constituents include Tata Steel (5.6 per cent), Bharti Tele-Ventures (4.1 per cent) and Hindalco Industries (3.9 per cent).

Dr. Reddy's Labs rose 2.8 per cent to Rs 910.95. The company has acquired Trigenesis Therapeutics, a US-based dermatology company for a total of $ 11 million. According to the company, the acquisition will provide access to certain products and proprietary drug delivery technology platforms for developing a pipeline of drugs in the dermatology segment. SRF rose 3 per cent to Rs 44.95. The company has obtained a patent from the United States Patent & Trademark office for a production process of an ozone-friendly refrigerant gas.

India Gypsum rose 1.3 per cent to Rs 84. The company plans to build gypsum plasterboard manufacturing facility at Wada near Mumbai, at an estimated cost of Rs 144 crore.

Wockhart fell by 3.6 per cent to Rs 334.05. It has acquired esparma GmbH, a German pharmaceutical company for a total of $ 11 million (Rs 49 crore).

Multi Arc India rose 20 per cent to Rs 12.09. After the close of the day's trading, the company announced that it plans to issue equity shares on a preferential basis to strategic investors.

Datamatics Technologies, which made its debut in the stock exchanges on Friday closed at Rs 164.85, about 50 per cent higher than its IPO price of Rs 110. The stock, during the course of the day's trading, reached a high of Rs 210. About 39.8 lakh shares were traded in this counter.

The stocks of several sugar makers including Dhampur Sugar, Thiru Arooran Sugars, and Oudh Sugar closed the day on a negative note. The Supreme Court's ruling that empowered the State Governments to peg the price of sugarcane higher than the Statutory Minimum Price continues to haunt these stocks.

Several steel stocks including Jindal Iron & Steel (5.2 per cent), Essar Steel (5.5 per cent), Tata Steel (5.6 per cent) and SAIL (3.1 per cent) also closed the day on a negative note.

Coupled with sharp increase in trading volumes the stocks of Jagson Airlines (20 per cent), Nahar International (11 per cent), NRC (9.4 per cent), Jaypee Hotels (8.8 per cent), Mid-day Multimedia (7.8 per cent), Tata Teleservices (6.7 per cent), Arvind Mills (6 per cent) and Praj Industries (5 per cent) closed the day on a positive note.

Other stocks that registered large volumes include IndusInd Bank, Power Trading Corporation, Centurion Bank, Petronet LNG, Maruti Udyog, Bank of Rajasthan, MTNL, GAIL India and Tata Motors.

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