Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
Markets
-
Commentary Columns - Sensor Markets remain buoyant; cement majors gain Radhika Kamath
MARKETS continued their upward march for the fourth day as the bellwether indices put up respectable gains on Monday. While the Sensex closed the day with a gain of 31 points, the Nifty was up by around 4 points. Smart rally by Satyam, Wipro, ICICI Bank and Grasim was significant in the markets recording sharp gains. The benchmark indices opened on a negative note amid concerns of lower earnings but staged a smart recovery subsequently with cement, bank and tech stocks recording major gains. The undertone in the markets was largely positive, as there was broad based buying across the sectors. The advance to declines ratio was tilted strongly in favour of the advances at 1.5. Although bullish sentiment was fairly widespread, markets witnessed some volatility in the mid-trading session. However, fresh buying interest coupled by the optimism that the overseas investors would continue to pour money helped the markets remain buoyant. Cement companies put up significant gains as the prices of the commodity were raised by about 5 per cent. Grasim was a major gainer whose stock surged by 0.8 per cent. Gujarat Ambuja and ACC were up by 0.5 and 0.1 per cent, respectively. The stocks of Wipro and Satyam saw a huge jump after the software giants revealed their plans to boost hiring and expand into more profitable areas such as advisory and remote network management. While Wipro was up 0.7 per cent, Satyam advanced by 4.7 per cent. The stocks in the banking sector witnessed some fresh buying. ICICI Bank was the biggest gainer whose stock advanced by 2.9 per cent. SBI, UTI Bank and Canara Bank were others in the winners' list. However, Oriental Bank of Commerce, which opened its shares for sale on Monday, shed value. HDFC and Punjab National Bank also traded weak. The steel sector saw a mixed trend. While Tata Steel, National Steel and Jindal Stainless advanced, stocks of SAIL, Uttam Galva and Sesa Goa declined. Most of the pharma stocks stayed out of the rally as GlaxoSmithKline, Matrix Lab, Dr.Reddy's, Ranbaxy and Sun Pharma ended in the red. Company specific stock action: The stock of Siemens India, the Indian unit of Germany's biggest electronics and engineering company gained sharply (up 2.2 per cent) as the company said that its second quarter profit rose 89 per cent and announced a mid-year dividend of Rs.4.5 per share. MTNL, which announced that its fourth quarter profit, had increased by 5 per cent, saw its stock move up by 5 per cent to close at Rs.122.5. Shares of Royal Airways, an Indian airline that will start the low-fare carrier, SpiceJet in May rose as much as 9.3 per cent after the company reported that it had got delivery of its first aircraft. SRF saw a steep rise in its stock price as the stock gained 11 per cent from its previous close of Rs.107.5.This was on the back of a report that the Indian tyre cord and chemical maker plans to enter the bulk drugs business and also conduct research for other companies. Other prominent gainers were HMT, Arvind Mills, Gruh Finance, Zodiac Clothing, BPL, NTPC and Essel Propack. Those that constituted the losers' pack were Apollo Tyres, Asian Paints, Container Corp, Crompton Greaves and Pantaloon Retail.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2005, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|