• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Vidya Bala

THE market marched ahead in style for the third day in a row after weak trends last week; the Sensex posted its biggest single-day gain since April 20. It rose by 1.2 per cent, to close at 6289.55. In intra-day trading, it reached a high of 6295.1 and a low of 6218.9. The Nifty moved in line with Sensex and closed at 1943.4, 1.2 per cent more than previous close.

In the basket of Sensex stocks, 26 posted gains indicating heightened buying activity in large-cap stocks. Similarly in the mid-cap space, the advancing stocks outnumbered declining stocks by three times pointing to firm trends.

Click here for table

The bullish undertone appears to have been driven by the hike in interest rates by a quarter percentage point to three per cent by the US Federal Reserve (on expected lines) and the continued softening of crude prices. A reversal in the direction of FII flows has also been a positive though their net buying on Tuesday was a modest Rs 30 crore. Leading the pack of gainers was Ranbaxy, which bounced back to life, with an increase of Rs 41.2 or 4.5 per cent as investors flocked to buy the stock after its steep losses following a disappointing earnings announcement. The other major gainers were Tata Power, Dr. Reddy's, Larsen & Toubro and Hero Honda. Kirloskar Bros was a significant gainer which was up by Rs 53. The rally was broad based. The oil and gas stocks such as HPCL, IOC, ONGC rose by an average of one per cent while Chennai Petroleum declined 1 per cent.

Metal stocks made a positive mark, led by Mukund which was up by 8.7 per cent. Ispat Industries, Lloyds Steel and Uttam Galva Steel also made respectable gains.

Cement stocks remained firm driven by robust desptach volumes in April.

UltraTech Cement was at the forefront with a gain of 9.7 per cent as it posted impressive volume growth in April after several months of lacklustre numbers. Gujarat Ambuja was marked up by 1 per cent.

In the IT sector space, Flextronics was the biggest gainer as investors flocked to buy the stock on expectations of gains in the delisting process. Flextronics closed at Rs 623.1, registering a gain of 13 per cent. Its parent - Flextronics International - announced a proposal to buy the shares held by the public and delist the stock.

Infosys made respectable gains with a surge of 1.6 per cent, closing at Rs 1,938.7.

The notable loser on the day was Hexaware. The stock closed 5.4 per cent lower as markets reacted adversely to an Oracle announcement to exercise option of buying the People Soft software development centre at Bangalore.

Banking sector stocks rose smartly with the BSE Bankex rising 1.4 per cent. Bank of India and Punjab National Bank made handsome gains of 6 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. Union Bank of India rose 2.7 per cent as its earnings and dividend announcement were received favourably.

In company-specific action:

Stories in this Section
Vijay Shanthi Builders plans pref issue

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