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B. Krishnakumar

SNAPPING the eight-day rally, the benchmark indices closed on a subdued note on Wednesday. After scaling a high of 5456.85, the BSE Sensex ended the day at 5420.09. This represents a drop of 8.68 points from Tuesday's close. The S&P CNX Nifty was down by 2.35 points at 1683.2.

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After having recorded a 4.4 per cent rise in the past eight trading sessions, profit-booking appears to have interrupted the rally on Wednesday. The list of losers amongst the index stocks is a pointer to this effect. Major losers from the index stocks include HDFC, Ranbaxy and Satyam Computers; stocks that have logged sharp gains in the past few trading sessions.

The share price of HDFC closed at Rs 616.2, after having registered a drop of Rs 20.85. The stock has recorded a 14 per cent rise in value during the eight-day rally that lasted till Tuesday. A similar trend was witnessed in the case of Ranbaxy as well. The stock dropped by Rs 18.45 on Wednesday before closing at Rs 1,074.6.

Hindustan Lever, BHEL and Reliance Industries were the top gainers from the stocks that constitute the index. The share price of Hindustan Lever increased by Rs 3.6 to Rs 123.55. BHEL gained Rs 10.6 to settle at Rs 589.05.

An overall weakness in the stocks from the oil refinery sector was a major highlight of the day's trading. The share price of top companies from the industry, including Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL were confined to the losers' list of the day.

Share price of Indian Oil Corporation dropped by Rs 6.25 to Rs 419.2. Trading volumes increased to 1.96 lakh shares from 1.74 shares.

In an otherwise subdued market, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Moser Baer attracted market attention. A sharp jump in volume was witnessed in the Kotak Mahindra Bank counter. From 14,598 shares recorded on Tuesday, trading volumes jumped to 24.82 lakh shares on Wednesday.

The share price of Kotak Mahindra Bank increased by Rs 5.2 or close to 3 per cent and ended the day at Rs 180.6. Quite a few block deals were witnessed in the counter. As per the data available on the BSE Web site, CLSA Merchant Bankers and ABN Mauritius bought close to 21 lakh shares on Wednesday at an average price of Rs 180 per share.

In the case of Moser Baer, the trading volumes doubled to 5.5 lakh shares from 2.7 lakh shares recorded the previous day. After hitting a high of Rs 231.90, the stock closed slightly lower at Rs 222.25. This represents a gain of Rs 10.90 or 5.2 per cent over the previous close.

A sharp spurt in volumes was evident in counters such as Ashima, Datamatics, Unichem Labs, Wockhardt and Siemens. The share price of these companies registered a sharp rise in during the day. Wockhardt's share price increased by 6 per cent to Rs 316.7. Trading volumes zipped to 1.95 lakh shares from 11,868 shares.

Along with Hindustan Lever, Colgate Palmolive was another gainer from the FMCG space. The share price of Colgate Palmolive went up by Rs 6.4 to Rs 151.65. Trading volumes spurted to 2.42 lakh shares from Tuesday's 29,992 shares.

The jump in trading volumes was more pronounced in the case of Ashima. At 11.69 lakh shares, trading volumes were up sharply in relation to 31,065 shares recorded the previous day. The share price recorded a 20 per cent jump to settle at Rs 18.55.

Apart from the oil sectors stocks, the list of losers was represented by companies that had recorded sharp gains in the past few days. The list includes MRF, Ind-Swift, Kothari Products and Thomas Cook.

The share price of Ind-Swift Labs dropped by Rs 1.75 to close at Rs 65.2. Trading volumes dropped to 5.34 lakh shares from 11.25 lakh shares. The share price of the company had recorded a 26 per cent jump to close at Rs 66.95 on Tuesday.

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