The Hindu Business Line : Heavyweights pull down markets

The selling pressure witnessed by the key index heavyweights dragged the 30-stock index down by 86.7 points (1.79 per cent). Steel, bank and cement sector stocks also witnessed losses on Monday.

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Sensex opened weak at 4810.42 points, about 22 points lower than Friday's closing. The index recorded mild volatility as it steadily declined through the day.

Sensex closed at 4746.01 points, about 21 points higher than the day's low of 4725.39 points.

Several bank stocks including Vijaya Bank (7.9 per cent), Dena Bank (6.5 per cent) and Jammu & Kashmir Bank (6.4 per cent) fell sharply on Monday as BANKEX, the index for bank stocks, fell by 3.38 per cent.

Other indices that fell include BSEPSU (2.73 per cent), BSE TECk (2.49 per cent) and BSE 500 (2.15 per cent).

On the NSE, the 50-stock index Nifty, fell by 27.1 points (1.8 per cent) to 1481.35 points. The decline was higher in mid-cap stocks as the index CNX Midcap 200 fell by 2.62 per cent.

About 17.42 crore shares were traded on the NSE, marginally higher than the previous trading day's volumes of 17.27 crore shares.

On the BSE, of the total 1,782 stocks that were traded, 454 advanced, 1,268 declined and the rest remained unchanged. The decline was higher in the `A' group stocks.

Among the Sensex constituents, seven advanced and the rest declined. Barring Reliance Industries, all the key index heavyweights closed the day on a negative note. The index heavyweights that registered sharp fall include Infosys Technologies (2.2 per cent) and ICICI Bank (3.2 per cent).

Other index constituents that registered sharp fall include Gujarat Ambuja Cement (4.8 per cent), Grasim Industries (6.4 per cent), Tata Steel (5.9 per cent) and State Bank of India (6.1 per cent).

Coupled with the sharp increase in trading volumes the stock of Eveready Industries fell by 1.5 per cent to Rs 28.95. The company plans to reorganise its business under two separate legal entities - one devoted to the FMCG business and the other to the bulk tea segment by retaining the FMCG business in the existing company and demerging the bulk tea business to a new entity.

The stock of Precision Wires India fell by 1.5 per cent to Rs 39.9. The company plans to increase its installed capacity for manufacturing enamelled copper winding wires.

The stock of Hughes Software fell by 0.8 per cent to Rs 512.9. After the close of the day's trading, Flextronics Sales & Marketing and Flextronics International has made an open offer to the shareholders of the company to acquire up to 67.9 lakh shares of Rs 5 each (representing 20 per cent of the paid up share capital) at a price of Rs 548 per share.

The stock of Satnam Overseas fell by 3.3 per cent to Rs 65.5. The company has chalked out an Rs 40 crore capex plan - Rs 32 crore for buying a rice mill in Britain for catering to the European market and Rs 8 crore for setting up a manufacturing plant for ready-to-eat foods in Haryana.

Triggered by a proposal of the Union Steel Ministry for setting up an independent regulator to monitor and fix the price, several steel stocks registered declines. Coupled with a sharp surge in trading volumes, the stocks of SAIL (8.5 per cent), Jindal Iron (6.7 per cent) and Essar Steel (4.8 per cent) witnessed losses.

Huge trading volumes were also seen in the stocks of SAIL, Maruti Udyog, Satyam Computer, Tata Power, Tata Motors, GAIL, Bharti, Tata Teleservices, Arvind Mills, Jaiprakash Associates, Zee Telefilms, Himachal Futuristic and ONGC.