Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Feb 10, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Feb 10, 2005 |
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Stock Markets Markets - Commentary Columns - Sensor Sustained institutional buying lends support S. Muralidhar
THE consolidation and correction mode in the stock markets was broken on Wednesday and the markets witnessed a healthy, positive mid-week session. The fairly strong showing of the major indices comes after two consecutive sessions drifting lower, caused mainly by the lack of any clear directions or positive economic pointers. Wednesday's session also marked the return of buying support in a wide spectrum of industry sectors. After the hesitancy that was evident in the previous two sessions, the increased buying interest, even if it was restricted to specific stocks within each of these sectors, was a hint that the bulls were out in strength. Also, unlike in the previous two trading sessions, there were no signs of profit-booking picking up steam after stocks recorded sizeable gains. The sustained, but cautious, support provided by institutional and investor buying was also evident in the narrow range in which the BSE sensitive index (Sensex) moved during the day. Energy, automobile, banking, cement and information technology were among the sectors that were in demand. The Sensex stayed within a 60-point band through the day and closed only slightly lower with gains of 49 points, an indicator of the absence of heavy selling pressure at higher price levels. After opening the day on an optimistic note at 6,557 points, the Sensex hit a high of 6,614 points and tested a low of 6,553 points before finally settling down to a close of 6,594 points. However, despite the investment buying, the total traded value of Sensex stocks was a low Rs 602 crore. There were a total of 21 gainers to 9 losers in the Sensex 30. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the benchmark 50-share Nifty index was up over 0.7 per cent or about 15 points. The major gainers in the Nifty were Maruti Udyog (up 4.8 per cent at Rs 488), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 4.5 per cent), Oriental Bank, HDFC Bank and L&T - all up over three per cent, Zee Telefilms, Tata Chemicals, Tata Tea, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank. The Nifty stocks that posted losses on Wednesday were Bharti TeleVentures, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Colgate, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Tata Power, Hindalco, HDFC, Wipro, National Aluminium and Reliance Energy. Except for Bharti, which fell due to profit-booking on Wednesday's trading session, the other telecom stocks such as MTNL, VSNL and Tata Teleservices were seen posting gains. Similarly, the infrastructure, information technology, oil and gas and power sectors were also a mixed bag. Among the major Sensex stocks that recorded gains on Wednesday included ACC, BHEL, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Grasim Industries, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, Hindustan Lever, ITC, ICICI Bank, Infosys Technologies, ONGC, Maruti, Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer, SBI, Tata Steel and Tata Motors. Among the stocks that slid were Bajaj Auto, Bharti, Cipla, and Hindalco. Tech stocks were a mixed bag and the gainers included HCL Technologies, i-flex Technologies, Moser Baer, Polaris Lab and TCS Ltd. Losers were HCL Infosys, Hughes Software, Mphasis BFL and Patni Computers. One of the biggest gainers among the key indices on the BSE was the BSE Bankex. The index of banking sector stocks climbed over 1.8 per cent. Apart from the banks that feature in the other indices, the other gainers included Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, J&K Bank, UCO Bank, UTI Bank, Union Bank and Vijaya Bank. The only three banking stocks that lost ground on Wednesday were Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Kotak Bank.
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