The Hindu Business Line : Sensex flat; cement, steel in limelight

THE markets closed on a flat note as the initial enthusiasm faded as the day progressed. The Sensex ended on a flat note after on a strong 40-point gain in the initial trading hours. Cement, steel and auto stocks led the initial upmove.

During the later half, however, stocks such as Maruti and Tata Motors lost most of the gains on profit-booking.

Cement stocks, however, closed on a positive note despite some profit-taking towards the end of the day.

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The broad market trend, however, remained bullish as indicated by the advance to decline ratios. In the BSE 500, 332 stocks rose while half as many declined.

The BSE Sensex gained 0.57 points to 5102.94 points. 2.33 crore shares were traded. The Nifty gained 0.33 per cent to 1604.35 points.

Cement stocks such as Grasim, ACC and Gujarat Ambuja were among the top gainers during the day.

Zee Telefilms too was upbeat as it emerged the highest bidder for the telecast rights for the cricket series. The stock zoomed 4.1 per cent to Rs 140 in a flat market.

Mid-cap cements stocks such as India Cements and Prism Cement too made handsome gains.

Titan was one of the major mid-cap gainers. The stock zoomed 15.7 per cent to close at Rs 134. Trading volumes too shot up in the counter. The company had been reporting encouraging growth rates for both its watches and jewellery division. Investor interest has been high in the stock over the past few days.

VSNL closed up 9.5 per cent on the news that the company will receive close to Rs 7.6 billion from the sale of its stake in Intelnet. The stock closed at Rs 173.

Some of the mid cap gainers include Century Textiles, Balaji Tele, Gujarat Alkali, MRF, Jaiprakash Associates, Mahavir Spinning and Ashok Leyland.

Cummins India too witnessed some buying interest. The stock moved up 4.4 per cent to close at Rs 106. Cummins India has been on an upmove over the past few days. The stock had been range bound for a long time at the Rs 90 range and has recently moved past Rs 100.

Stock from the capital goods basket such as Greaves Cotton and KSB Pumps edged ahead. Despite a broad positive sentiment in the sector, the overall effect was muted.

Stocks such as Crompton Greaves, Alfa Laval, Kirloskar Brothers and Timken India were the major losers.

Mid-cap pharma stocks continued to rally. Orchid Chemicals, Gufic Biosciences, Sun Pharma, FDC, Glenmark, Aurobindo Pharma and Nicholas Piramal were some of the gainers in this basket.

Among the IT stocks, Hexaware was the top gainer. The stock rose 7.5 per cent to Rs 524. Others IT stocks that rose were Mascon Global and Zenzar Technologies.

It was a dull day for banking stocks. Rising inflation has been keeping bank stocks under check as interest rates might rise, wiping unrealised treasury gains. The expected lower growth in GDP also threatens to increase the Government borrowings.

These concerns have diluted interest in bank stocks. Among losers such as Canara Bank and Oriental Bank, State Bank of Travancore rose 3.6 per cent.

The public sector loss making company HMT gained 1.75. It has pruned down losses during the first quarter and income has also increased due to higher sales of tractors and machine tools.

The news of Tata Steel's acquisition of Singapore-based NatSteel triggered marginal interest in the stock. The stock rose 1.41 per cent to Rs 270. Other steel stocks such as SAIL, Ispat Industries and Jindal Steel too were upbeat.

Fertiliser stocks such as Rastriya Chemicals, Madras Fertilizers, FACT too witnessed some buying interest during the day.

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