The Hindu Business Line : Cautious mood prevails in market

THE mood in the market remained cautious on Tuesday, ahead of an expected increase in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve and concerns of slower FII inflows.

FIIs were the net sellers to the tune of Rs 654 crore in April. The cautious mood in the market was evident in the advances-decline ratio at 1:1.

Reliance, Bharti Tele-Ventures, BHEL and SBI helped the bellwether indices to close in the positive territory.

Banking, consumer goods and consumer durables sectors were the major gainers. Contrary to Monday's gains, IT stocks lost due to profit booking.

Click here for table

Driven by concerns of lower metal prices and slow down in demand from China, a mixed trend prevailed among metal stocks.

The Sensex, after opening marginally higher, almost immediately dipped into the red; subsequently it moved into the positive territory for the entire day. The Sensex lost a large part of its gains in the last two hours of trading to close at 6216.77 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty moved on similar lines. After opening at 1916.95 points, it touched a high of 1940.1; towards the close of trading hours it lost about 20 points to close with a net gain of 0.21 per cent.

Among the consumer-goods stocks, Tata Tea, Godrej Consumer Products and VST Industries were the major gainers. Backed by a spurt in global coffee prices, Tata Coffee, on thin volumes, shot up 5.28 per cent.

Paint stocks Asian Paints, ICI India, Jenson & Nicholsan and Snowcem closed with gains. Goodlass Nerolac, on thin volumes, closed with a gain of about Rs 13 after it announced of a jump in the fourth quarter earnings of about 42 per cent.

The banking oriented index on the BSE closed with a gain of 0.6 per cent. State-owned banks Bank of India, Andhra Bank, State Bank of India and Union Bank were the significant gainers.

The stocks of oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation, HPCL and BPCL appear to have declined on expectations that the Government is unlikely to hike fuel prices.

Among the IT stocks, the major losers were Teledata Informatics, Silverline Technologies, CMC, KPIT Cummins and Aztec Software. Wipro, Infosys and MphasiS BFL were the other losers.

The income-tax department, earlier in the day, slapped a Rs 50-crore notice on Infosys.

Century Textiles declined 2.37 per cent to close at Rs 243.55 after the company had declared almost flat earnings for the fourth quarter.

Heightened activity took place in Sintex Industries. It had a nearly six-fold jump in volumes. The stock closed with a gain of nine per cent after the company had announced a more than 100-per cent growth in fourth quarter net earnings.

Accompanied by a 20-fold jump in volumes, Ind-Swift closed with a gain over 8 per cent after it had declared a 118-per cent growth in net earnings for the 2005 fiscal.

Hindustan Dorr-Oliver declined 4.5 per cent ahead of IVRCL's announcement that it is set to acquire an 18.8-per cent stake in the construction company at Rs 145.6 through an open offer.

Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, on thin volumes, shot down 4.65 per cent after the company had declared a fall of 33 per cent in net earnings for the quarter ended March 2005.

Gufic BioSciences was up 9.11 per cent. This has to be viewed in the light of the company declaring an almost four-fold jump in net earnings for the fourth quarter.

Prominent gainers on the Nifty were Tata Chemicals, Oriental Bank of Commerce, MTNL, Maruti and GAIL.

Significant losers among the Nifty constituents were TCS, Reliance Energy, Dabur, Zee Telefilms and Colgate.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
BSNL plans undersea cable to Singapore

NCDEX launches agri index

50 pc of farm households indebted: Survey

Ranbaxy to rejig branded biz in US

Power crisis likely to continue — Coal, gas shortage results in 2 b units loss

Bt cotton allowed in some States, not in AP

Cautious mood prevails in market

Banks to float company for new settlement system

MSEB, Maharashtra asked to pay $125 m to GE, Bechtel