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S. Muralidhar

THE strong revival of buying support that has been driving the indices northwards at the stock markets, during the last couple of weeks, continued to gain momentum on Tuesday.

The upbeat sentiment is due to the inflow of good corporate performances, the pro-reform indicators that the Government has been exuding and the recent fall in inflation.

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These signs have led to an improvement in the confidence levels among institutional and individual investors.

However, despite the lack of any specific positive pointers on Tuesday, the markets showed clear signs of active buying interest.

After starting the day a bit hesitantly, a number of key index heavyweights posted gains that helped the benchmark indices close the day with a jump of over one per cent compared to their previous close levels.

During Tuesday's session, the major sectors that were in the limelight included stocks from the banking, steel, information technology, pharmaceuticals and automobile industries.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) went up by over 65 points intra-day during Tuesday's session and closed the day with a gain of over one per cent. The day's gain has also taken the Sensex past the 5,600 points barrier, to 5,605 points. Unlike some of the previous sessions, when the intra-day trend showed sharp fluctuations in the index, Tuesday's session saw a consistent, clear upward trend in the Sensex. With this gain, the Sensex has jumped over 10 per cent compared to its month ago levels.

Of the 30 Sensex stocks, 22 posted gains on Tuesday, with the remaining 8 ending the day lower. Traded value of all the Sensex stocks crossed the Rs 1,000-crore mark.

The biggest gainers among the Sensex stocks were ICICI Bank (up 3.57 per cent), Cipla (up 3.45 per cent), Wipro (up 3.17 per cent), Hindalco Industries (up 2.71 per cent), Tata Power (up 2.67 per cent), HDFC (up 2.42 per cent) and Tata Steel, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Satyam Computers, all of which were up over two per cent.

Investor interest in Maruti Udyog (MUL), which had been affected last week by the lack of clarity about joint venture partner Suzuki Motor Corporation's (SMC) future investment plans, improved on Tuesday after the Government's intervention in the matter. The Government has sought a clarification about the proposed new engine plant and car assembly unit and has effectively warned SMC that such investment plans should include and be routed through Maruti. The announcement had a salubrious effect on MUL's stock price, which closed the day with a gain of about 2.54 per cent.

Among the other Sensex stocks that posted gains on Tuesday were ACC, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Tele-Ventures, BHEL, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, HPCL, Infosys Technologies, ONGC, Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy, State Bank of India and Tata Motors. The eight Sensex stocks that declined on Tuesday were Grasim Industries, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, HDFC Bank, Hero Honda, HLL, ITC, MTNL and Zee Telefilms.

Other sectors that have seen a revival of buying interest despite the lack of any specific positive news are that of public sector undertakings and banking cos.

Among the big gainers from this segment were Bank of Baroda, Bharat Earth Movers, Bharat Electricals, Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, Engineers India, HPCL, HMT, IBP, IDBI, Nalco, Neyveli Lignite, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank, Vijaya Bank, Steel Authority of India and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers.

Among the information technology stocks, apart from the industry bell-weathers Infosys and Wipro, the other stocks that gained ground were HCL Infosys, HCL Technologies, Hughes Software, i-Flex Technologies, Moser Baer, Polaris Labs and TCS Ltd. Patni Computers and Mphasis-BFL were the two stocks that closed the day a shade lower.

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