Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Feb 25, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Feb 25, 2005 |
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Markets
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Commentary Columns - Sensor i-flex, Infosys flare up in volatile trading Alagappan Arunachalam
INVESTORS appear to be playing the wait-and-watch game. The market opened on a strong note and moved steadily, however, volatile trading was witnessed in the last 45 minutes, as the broad based indices BSE Sensex and the S&P CNX Nifty alternated in the positive and negative territories, finally ending in the red. The Sensex opened at 6616.37 points and moved within a band of 60 points before closing at 6574.21. The Nifty touched an intra-day high of 2070.5 before closing at 2055.3, lower by a marginal 0.09 per cent. Stocks of SAIL, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, Sterlite Industries, Hindustan Zinc and Nalco closed lower. The Jindal group metal stocks closed lower by 1.44-2 per cent. Bucking the trend were Essar Steel and Sesa Goa. The shares of Sesa Goa gained Rs 6.75 supported by increased volumes; the stock has been rising since Monday on information that the company plans to increase mineral ore prices for its customers by 71 per cent. The BSETECk index outperformed the Sensex; a similar pattern was also witnessed on the NSE. i-flex Solutions, Hughes Software Systems, Infosys and Satyam pulled the index into positive territory. The stock of i-flex saw a more than 13-fold jump in volumes. The stock was up 2.18 per cent; the volume on the BSE was the highest since January 28. HCL Infosys, HCL Technologies, TCS, Wipro and Polaris Software Lab were down from Wednesday's close. A large number of banking stocks declined. Stocks of PSU banks Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Union Bank and Vijaya Bank shed value. The stock of Bank of Punjab shed 9.8 per cent to close at Rs 40.05. The market appears to have factored in the board's decision to issue shares to strategic investors at Rs 38; nearly 48 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE. Corporation Bank, Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India, Kotak Bank and HDFC Bank bucked the trend. Auto stocks Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Punjab Tractors, Sundaram Clayton, Sundram Fastners and Tata Motors slipped. The stock of TVS Motors gained 3.9 per cent on the back of its latest expansion plans. Heightened activity was seen on the TVS Motor counter as nearly 9,59,829 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE. Stocks of construction companies gained on information that the Government has allowed full ownership of projects by foreign companies. Shares of Mahindra Gesco Developers gained 6.55 per cent, Ansal Housing & Construction advanced by 9.88 per cent and Madhucon Projects jumped 9.99 per cent. IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects ended 3.59 per cent higher supported by strong volumes. Mixed trend was witnessed in the refineries sector. Bharat Petroleum, Chennai Petroleum, Kochi Refineries and Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals shed value. The stocks of refining majors Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation supported by increased trading volumes, gained 1.25 and 1.96 per cent respectively on market expectations of cut in import duties on crude oil, kerosene & LPG. The stock of Zee Telefilms shed 3.28 per cent to close at Rs 147.45. Investors appeared to have pushed the stock down on information that the forthcoming India-Pakistan cricket series is to be broadcast on the state-owned channel DD. Nearly 9.6 lakh shares were traded on the BSE. Prominent gainers among the Nifty constituents were Dabur India, BHEL, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals and ABB. Significant losers on the Nifty were Larsen & Toubro, Cipla, MTNL, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, GAIL India and National Aluminium Company.
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