The Hindu Business Line : Banking, pharma stocks score gains

MARKETS opened with a bang on Thursday, for most part of the day the bulls prevailed. The bullish undertone was evident in the advances-declines ratio, which stood at 2:1.

The Cabinet's proposal to lift the restriction on voting rights, to bring it on par with the equity holding pattern created interest in the banking stocks. Banking stocks traded in substantially higher volumes, most of which gained.

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The BSE Sensex opened 33 points higher, thereafter it moved steadily in the positive territory within a band of 70 points. It closed at 6359.65, netting a gain of 70 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty moving on similar lines, opened steady at 1942.6 points, for most part of the session it moved in the positive territory. The index closed at 1963.3 points, registering a gain of 1.07 per cent from Wednesday's close.

Among the banking stocks, the major gainers were Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank and Corporation Bank, all of which gained more than six per cent. The private sector banks were not far behind, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank and J&K Bank gained over one per cent.

Results and stock moves: Housing finance major HDFC put out its quarterly earnings card, which saw earnings for the March quarter rise by 17 per cent over the year-ago period. Markets, however, appeared to be none too enthused with the numbers, as the stock shed Rs 4.6 to close the day at Rs 748.8.

Flextronics ended lower by Rs 9.6 at Rs 613.5; its quarterly numbers, announced just after the close of market hours, showed a rise in earnings for the March quarter by 42 per cent. The stock had moved up sharply on the back of the news that the company's parent intended to delist its shares from the Indian market by offering shareholders a price of Rs 575.

News-related moves: Nicholas Piramal announced that it intends to tap the markets with a rights issue in the ratio of one share for every 10 shares held to raise as much as Rs 350 crore. The pricing of the offer is likely to be finalised at a later date. The stock rose by Rs 3.50 to finish at Rs 226.90.

Another pharma stock that moved up smartly on the back of a news-related development was Lupin, which announced a $ 10.5-million (Rs 46 crore) deal with the US-based Cornerstone BioPharma to develop a new delivery system for an anti-infective drug. The stock rose by as much as Rs 58.05 to end at Rs 614.65

Century Enka put on Rs 8.40 to settle at Rs 154.15 after it announced that it plans to buyback shares from NRI investors at an undisclosed price.

ONGC flared by Rs 23 after it had announced of three new gas findings, two in the Krishna-Godavari basin and one of the Western coast near Mumbai High.

Among other stocks, Ucal Fuel continued to build on the 20 per cent gains the stock registered during Wednesday's trade. The stock rose a further 10 per cent to end the day at Rs 262.50.

Oriental Bank of Commerce lost about 4 per cent after reports the FII holding in the stock had reached the trigger of 18 per cent.

For courier and logistics player Gati, whose stock was buzzing around in Wednesday's trade, it was a different story, though. The stock cooled off by Rs 10.15 to end the day at Rs 211.60. A couple of other stocks that have had a scorching run in recent times - Gujarat Fluorochemicals and Kirloskar Brothers - also took a breather and ended the day lower.

Other prominent gainers were Lakshmi Machine Works, Karur Vysya Bank, MRF, Solvay Pharma, Dynamatic Technologies and MICO.

Stocks such as Jet Airways, Crisil, SKF and Siemens were a few prominent stocks that figured on the losers list.

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