The Hindu Business Line : Sensex posts first weekly decline in five

From mid-caps, the action now seems to be penetrating into the small cap segment. A number of small caps recorded gains in excess of 5 per cent. Traded volumes too have been picking up in quite a few small cap stocks. Stock specific news too triggered interest in a section of stocks. Apart from the rally in small cap stocks, pharma companies too had a fairly good run on the last day of the week.

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The Sensex posted its first weekly decline in five weeks losing 11.73 points to close at 5527.75 points. Nifty closed 3.65 points lower at 1722.5 points. In an extremely volatile trading session, the markets opened on a weak note and surged sharply for a brief period before losing steam. Among Sensex stocks, Reliance and Grasim was major losers. Reliance Industries fell after a two-week surge in oil prices raised concern that earnings growth may slow. Grasim lost 1.8 per cent to Rs 1119.8 on concerns of a slowdown in construction activity due to rising raw material costs.

The stock of Maruti gained Rs 6 after the Suzuki clarified its investment plans in India. Maruti will hold 70 per cent stake in the new car manufacturing plant, which will make high-end cars. Moreover, the stock has been upgraded from `market perform' to `outperform' by HDFC securities, a brokerage house, as the negatives have been already factored in.

The stock of Indiabulls, the latest IPO on the block, got listed on the bourses at Rs 23.85, at a 26 per cent premium to its IPO price of Rs 19. The company received bids for 18.5 times the number offered.

The stocks of Gujarat Government owned companies such as Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals, Gujarat Narmada valley Fertilisers, Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, Gujarat Industries Power were on fire on news reports that the Gujarat Government may consider divestment in 12 companies.

Pharma stocks witnessed a good buying spree on Friday. Prominent gainers in the pharma space include Abott Loboratories, Ajanta Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Aventis Pharma, Divi's Labs, Elder Pharma, Lupin, Nicholas Piramal, Pfizer, Shasun Chemicals and Glenmark Pharma raced ahead. Glenmark surged 10 per cent for the second straight day. The drug maker licensed the development of an asthma drug to US based Forest Laboratories for $190 million.

The action boiled down to small cap stocks from mid cap stocks. Some of the small cap stocks that attracted attention were Crew B.O.S productions, JK Synthetics, SWIL, Uniphos Enterprises, Lloyds Steel, Shalimar Products, JCT, Nagarjuna Fertilisers, Mahindra Gesco, Oil Country Tubular, SPIC and Shrenuj. Traded volumes surged substantially in these counters. Most of the large volume gainers were in the below Rs 50 price band. Some such stocks include Mukand Engineers, Ajanta Pharma, Epic Enzymes, BDH Industries, Hydro S&S Industries and Indo-city Infotech. SPIC said it may save Rs 215 crore by converting half of its overseas loan into local currency debt fuelling interest in the stock.

IBP fell 4.2 per cent to Rs 563 after IOC, the parent company, announced a negative earnings outlook for the rest of the year. Being a pure marketing company, it does not enjoy the high refining margins enjoyed by other oil companies.

Siemens India has won a 49 million euro, which will be jointly executed by the parent company and Siemens India. The order was received from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for providing signalling and communications systems, triggering fresh interest in the stock.

Tata Motors gained momentum on the back of reports that the company plans to buy a Spanish bus making and designing company.

Oil Country Tubular has announced that it expects a 30 per cent increase in turnover for 2004-05 to Rs 130 crore and its current order book is at Rs 205 crore. The stock gained 12 per cent.

State Trading Corporation has approved a final dividend of Rs 5 per cent. The stock has been on an up move for quite a while. It closed at Rs 84.4, down 1.23 per cent.

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