The Hindu Business Line : Indices tumble as oil concerns continue

CONCERNS about the high oil prices continued to plague the markets, as the BSE Sensex plunged by 64.66 points (or 1.27 per cent) to close at 5038.28 points. During the course of the day, the crude oil touched a high of $47 a barrel and the fears of inflation, which has already been trending up, were sustained.

The Sensex opened for the day on a flat note at 5103.97, which was also the high for the day and kept sliding through the day to touch a low of 5025.49 points in the last half-an-hour of trading. It staged a marginal recovery at close of trading.

The Government's decision to reduce the customs duty and excise duty on petrol and diesel were announced after the trading hours.

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Practically all the key constituents of the Sensex starting from Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, ITC, ONGC, Ranbaxy Labs, Hindustan Lever, Tata Steel and HDFC witnessed selling pressure.

The only exception was Infosys Technologies, which bucked the overall market trend gaining 0.41 per cent.

A look at the BSE sectoral indices shows that with the exception of BSE Healthcare, which lost 2.03 per cent, all the other indices lost less than the Sensex. Compared to a 1.27-per cent decline in the Sensex, sectoral indices such as BSE-FMCG, Bankex and BSE Capital Goods shed only 1.09 per cent, 1.04 per cent and 0.86 per cent respectively. The least affected were BSE-Consumer Durables and BSE-IT, which lost only 0.04 per cent and 0.10 per cent.

The S&P CNX Nifty fell even more sharply than the Sensex, losing 1.41 per cent to close for the day at 1581.80 points. Among the top five gainers in the Nifty were BPCL, Punjab National Bank, Indian Hotels, Reliance Energy and Tata Chemicals. The top five losers were Sun Pharma, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Steel Authority of India, Cipla and VSNL.

The Nifty Junior dipped lower by 0.22 per cent to settle at 3059.45 points. Among this set, the top five gainers were Chennai Petroleum, Bank of Baroda, IBP, Raymond and Mico. The losers were Cummins India, UTI Bank, MRPL, Wockhardt and IFCI.

Among the significant gainers during the day were Clutch Auto, Atlas Cycle, Syngenta India, Coates India, Aztec Software, Bank of Punjab, India Glycols and Alfa Laval.

Buoyed by a strong financial performance, the Syngenta India stock was among the prominent gainers during the day. The stock appreciated by Rs 20.75 (or 9.30 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 274.25. The trading volumes in the stock soared from 14,153 shares on Tuesday's trading to 36,141 shares during the day.

Riding on the order bagged by Alfa Laval, the stock gained Rs. 24.7 (or 5.08 per cent) to rest for the day at Rs 510.70. The trading volumes in the stock rose from 439 shares on Tuesday to 16,493 shares during the day. The company has bagged an order of Rs.110 crore from Vedanta Resources and a distillery in Thailand.

The Hexaware Technologies was another stock which touched its new lifetime high closing at Rs 545, appreciating by over 4 per cent during the day. Last week, the stock has touched a new 52-week high of Rs 501 and has surged since then.

Among the prominent losers were Sun Pharma, D-Link India, Bharti Tele-Ventures and Balaji Telefilms. The selling pressure was evident in the Sun Pharma stock as the stock dipped by Rs 39.40 (or 9.37 per cent) to close at Rs 380.80. The trading volumes had also surged from 1.83 lakh shares on Tuesday's trading to 3.37 shares during the day.

The Bharti Tele-Ventures stock declined by Rs 9.6 per cent to close at Rs 141.50. The trading volumes have also jumped from 6.90 lakh shares on Tuesday to 32.02 lakh shares.

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