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Alagappan Arunachalam

THE markets satisfied with the dream budget continued the dream run, rising for the third day in succession. The budget appears to have instilled confidence among the investors at large. The breadth of the market was largely positive as could be gauged from the gains registered on various sectoral indices.

The BSE Sensex opened on a strong note; it went on to touch an intra-day high of 6864.62 points before closing at 6849.48, posting a gain of 64.76 points.

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The S&P CNX Nifty started off at 2129.10 points, after recording a fall in the initial hours. It picked up pace and ended the day at 2148.15, higher by 0.91 per cent from Thursday's close. The technology-oriented index on the NSE outperformed the Nifty with key technology stocks posting a sharp rise.

Auto stocks were the centre of attraction; the auto index on the BSE went up by 2.5 per cent. Stocks of tyre manufacturers, backed by strong volumes, led the rally from the front; Apollo Tyres, MRF, Ceat and TVS Srichakra rose sharply by more than three per cent. The stock of TVS Motors jumped by more than eight per cent, there was an eight-fold jump in volumes.

Eicher Motors rose by 2.87 per cent. This has to be seen in the backdrop of the company bagging orders worth about Rs 37 crore from the Government of Ghana for its Farmtrac range of tractors.

Stocks of Punjab National Bank and Indian Overseas Bank pulled up the banking index on the BSE. Andhra Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India and Corporation Bank ended lower. The stock of Punjab National Bank supported by impressive volumes gained by more than nine per cent to close at Rs 476.25. The bank has fixed the price band for its public offer at Rs 350-390. Investors appear to be buying at a premium for fear of not being able to subscribe on account of over-subscription as could be seen from the recent offers. Indian Overseas Bank had announced its plans to raise $250 million (about Rs 673 crore), the stock rose by 7.12 per cent.

On the back of a two-fold jump in volume, Crompton Greaves posted a gain of 14.24 per cent, the stock has been on a continuous rise ever since the company's acquisition of Pauwels group, a Belgian transformer maker. Close to four lakh shares were traded on the BSE.

Buying interest was evident in the stock of Ballarpur Industries; the company had announced that it expected to achieve a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore by the end of two fiscals. The stock gained six per cent closing at Rs 106.65.

Driven by selling pressure the stock of Mid-Day Multimedia slid 11.28 per cent to close at Rs 82.95 after reports that the Indian Express Group had picked up a ten per cent stake in the former at Rs 60 per share.

Mixed trend was visible in the FMCG sector as key stocks Colgate Palmolive, Hindustan Lever, Nestle, Britannia and Gillette India ended lower. Stocks of tobacco companies ITC, Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries closed higher by more than one per cent.

Stocks of media companies Zee Telefilms, Balaji Telefilms and NDTV put on smart gains of more than five per cent.

Prominent gainers on the Nifty were Wipro, Reliance, HCL Technologies, Maruti and Hindalco.

Significant losers among the Nifty constituents were Tata Chemicals, Hindustan Petroleum, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Hero Honda Motors and SBI.

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