The Hindu Business Line : Selling pressure seen on all counters

In the late hours of trade, markets recovered the losses of the morning trade. The fall was across all spectrums in the market, a total of 1,390 stocks declined against 992 advances.

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The BSE Sensex moved within a narrow band of 67 points and remained in the red for the entire day. The Sensex towards the end of the day recouped the losses to close at 6589.29 points, down by 18.49 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 2069.10 marginally higher than Wednesday's close, it then crashed into the red and continued in the negative territory to close at 2061.90, lower by a marginal 0.33 per cent.

Stocks of key fertiliser companies, Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals, Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers, Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals and Madras Fertilizers registered gains.

The stock of Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers rose sharply by 5.48 per cent to close at Rs 40.45; buying interest was evident in the stock.

Sugar prices in the American markets fell the most in two weeks, and this appeared to have caused a downward trend in share prices of sugar companies. Bajaj Hindustan and Balrampur Chini fell by 1.3 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively.

Key stocks in the automobiles and automobile related sectors declined, 13 stocks of the BSE Auto index declined. However, Ashok Leyland advanced by 2.29 per cent on the back of orders for its trucks and buses from Sudan; the stock closed at Rs 24.55.

Escorts rose sharply by 7.25 per cent on buying interest to close at Rs 81.35, following the board's approval of restructuring its authorised capital and a fresh issue of preference shares to non-resident investors on preferential basis. The shares of Escorts have been on a continuous upswing since Monday. Nearly 38 lakh shares were traded on the BSE against the two-week average of 10.27 lakh shares.

Shares of Praj Industries advanced by 5 per cent ending the day's trade at Rs 350.8. The company had announced that its export orders have crossed the Rs 100-crore mark.

Bank of Rajasthan rose sharply on the back of information that the bank plans to offer preferential equity shares on a preferential basis to FIIs or strategic investors, the stock touched an intra-day high of Rs 68.9 before closing at Rs 67.2, up 3.94 per cent from Wednesday's closes. Over 38.14 lakh shares were traded on the BSE.

Trading on the stock of Raymond was higher after the company had announced major initiatives aimed at strengthening its position in the textile sector. The company's board has approved a joint venture with an Italian company and the expansion of its worsted fabric capacity. Over 1.54 lakh Raymond shares were traded on the BSE. The stock closed higher at Rs 319.90, up 2.07 per cent.

Patni Computers gained marginally by 1.8 per cent on the back of information that the company is to set up a new software development facility in Pune.

Aluminium major Hindalco witnessed a downward trend in the wake of the RBI's announcement that the FII shareholding limit of 22 per cent has been reached. The stock declined by Rs 21.5 to close Rs 1,363.35.

Prominent gainers on the Nifty were Tata Steel, ABB, L & T, Hindustan Lever, Tata Power, Oriental Bank of Commerce and HDFC.

Significant losers among the Nifty constituents were Hero Honda Motors, HCL Technologies, Bharti Televentures, Tata Chemicals, Zee Telefilms and Ranbaxy.

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Selling pressure seen on all counters