The Hindu Business Line : Selling pressure grips Sensex in late hour

PROFIT booking among index heavyweights trimmed three successive days of uptrend in the BSE Sensex, with the Sensex closing 7.90 points lower at 5194.63 points on Tuesday.

While the improvement in the market sentiment on receding monsoon fears had triggered the rise, rising crude oil prices on account of the heightened state of security alert in the US anticipating terrorist attacks sparked off selling pressure in the markets.

After climbing through the day, the Sensex turned distinctly weak in the last hour of trading. The Sensex opened for the day at 5213.55 points, touched a high of 5242.15 and a low of 5181.99 before closing marginally higher.

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Reflecting the bearish sentiment, index stocks such as Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, ITC, ONGC, Hindustan Lever and HDFC ended in the negative territory.

Bucking the trend were stocks such as Infosys Technologies, Ranbaxy Labs, Tata Steel and Tata Motors.

Among the BSE Sectoral Indices, BSE - IT and BSE - Capital Goods were the two indices that logged gains of 0.36 per cent and 0.11 per cent, higher than the gains of the Sensex during the day.

Among the IT stocks, the major gainers were Infosys ( 1.31 per cent), Satyam Computer (1.75 per cent), Patni Computers (2.15 per cent) and Moser Baer (3.52 per cent).

Among the capital goods segment, the gainers were Atlas Copco (12.16 percent), Larsen and Toubro (1.7 per cent), Siemens (2.85 per cent), ABB (1.2 per cent) and Alfa Laval (1.59 per cent).

The indices which underperformed the Sensex were BSE - PSU Index, BankEx, BSE - FMCG and BSE - CD.

The S&P CNX Nifty, surprisingly lost 8.45 points (or 0.52 per cent) to close for the day at 1630.60.

However, Nifty Junior ended on a positive note, gaining 14.5 points (or 0.47 per cent) to settle at 3100.95.

The CNX Midcap 200 also fell in line with the Nifty Junior closing on a positive note.

Among Nifty Junior stocks, the top five gainers were IDBI, TVS Motors, GE Shipping, Concor and Cummins India.

The prominent losers were Canara Bank, MphasiS BFL, LIC Housing Finance, Bongaigoan Refinery and MRPL.

The significant gainers during the day were Philips Carbon, Greaves Cotton, Atlas Copco, a host of steel stocks such as Kalyani Steel, Jindal Iron, Essar Steel and Motherson Sumi among others.

Riding on the back of robust trading activity, the Greaves Cotton stock appreciated by Rs 8.45 (or 14.5 per cent) to settle for the day at Rs 66.55. The trading volumes in the stock soared from 60,781 shares on Monday's trading to 4.39 lakh shares during the day.

The Atlas Copco was another stock that soared during the day, with the stock appreciating by Rs 69.95 (or12.16 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 645.10. The trading volumes also doubled from 12,037 shares on Monday's trading to 24738 shares during the day.

Steel stocks were also fancied during the day, as steel prices (for flats) were revised higher by a couple of major players such as Tata Steel and Essar and a couple of others are following suit.

The Kalyani Steel stock appreciated by Rs 5.60 (or 10.3 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 60. Compared to 4.06 lakh shares traded on Monday, the trading volumes soared to 10.8 lakh shares during the day.

The prominent losers were Geodesic, Opto Circuits, VBC Ferro, Moschip Semiconductor, IVRCL Infrastructure, Canara Bank, D-Link India and Hindalco.

The IVRCL Infrastructure stock was among the losers, with the stock declining by Rs 7.40 to close for the day at Rs 191.20. The trading volumes in the stock, however shot up from 73,844 shares on Monday's trading to 2.20 lakh shares during the day.

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