Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Oct 22, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Oct 22, 2004 |
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Stock Markets Markets - Commentary Columns - Sensor Benchmarks down for 2nd successive week B. Krishnakumar
THE key market indices ended the day on a weak note. In the process, both the BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty have recorded second successive week of net decline. The Sensex closed lower by 31.96 points on Thursday at close at 5641.06 points and the Nifty was down by 10.3 points at 1779.75. After being stuck in a range, the market sentiment turned weak towards the latter half of the day's trading. The Sensex registered a low of 5617.37 and staged a modest recovery to close at 5641.06. The weakness in Reliance Industries, Ranbaxy, Bajaj Auto and Satyam Computer played a major role in pulling down the index. The share price of Reliance dropped by Rs 9.5 to Rs 538.85. The Ranbaxy stock dropped by Rs 20.75 to settle at Rs 1070.15 while Bajaj Auto's share price declined by Rs 26.35 to Rs 956. HDFC and Infosys were the prominent gainers from the stocks that form part of the index. The share price of HDFC increased by Rs 11.4 to Rs 663.45 and Infosys by Rs 18.75 to Rs 1777.7. Much of the price activity during the day was influenced by the flow of quarterly performance. Bajaj Auto and Orchid Chemicals were pegged to lower levels after these companies recorded relatively lacklustre performance for the quarter ended September 2004. The share price of Bajaj Auto closed on a weak note for the second day in succession. The stock dropped 2.7 per cent to Rs 956. The market appears to be disappointed with the quarterly performance reported by Bajaj. The stock has dropped by about Rs 50 in the last couple of trading sessions. After reporting a fall in net profit, the stock price of Orchid Chemicals was battered during Thursday's trading. The stock declined by Rs 9.6 or 4.2 per cent to close at Rs 220.45. Trading volumes almost doubled to 2.02 lakh shares from 1.09 lakh shares recorded on Wednesday. For the quarter ended September 2004, the company reported a 46 per cent drop in net profit while the turnover remained almost unchanged. Reliance Capital, HCL Technologies and Cranes Software were other prominent losers of the day. The share price of Reliance Capital declined by 2.5 per cent to Rs 138.6 and Cranes Software by Rs 18.4 to Rs 487.05. Infotech Enterprises, Sun Pharma and Kennametal Widia saw their share price seek higher levels on the back of an improved performance for the quarter ended September 2004. Infotech Enterprises' stock price shot up by about 10 per cent to Rs 157.8. Compared to 1.4 lakh shares recorded on Wednesday, trading volumes zipped ahead to 8.9 lakh shares on Thursday. The company recorded a 21-per cent jump in revenues while the net profit doubled to Rs 6.14 crore from Rs 3.04 crore. The Sun Pharma stock ended the day at Rs 450.45, up Rs 22.15 over Wednesday's close of Rs 428.3. The rise in value was accompanied by a sharp jump in trading volumes to 2.18 lakh shares from 29,971 shares recorded the previous day. Along Sun Pharma, Glenmark Pharma was another gainer from the pharma sector. The share price of Glenmark increased by Rs 7.05 to Rs 303.75. Trading activity was robust with 87,480 shares traded during the day as opposed to 55,499 shares recorded the previous day. Quite a few pharma stocks were, however, confined to the losers list. Companies such as Ranbaxy, Nicholas Piramal and Orchid were prominent losers from the sector. The share price of Nicholas Piramal dropped by Rs 35.6 to Rs 983.1. The stock has recorded a 10 per cent jump in price this month. A sharp spurt in trading volumes was evident in stocks such as Mercator Lines, Zensar Technologies, Welspun Gujarat and Rallis India. The share price of these companies too moved up sharply. In the case of Welspun Gujarat, the share price increased by 10 per cent to Rs 43.55. Trading volumes zipped to 64.17 lakh shares from 7.1 lakh shares recorded the pervious day.
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