The Hindu Business Line : Indices end positive after languishing in flat terrain

While the bellwether indices closed with gains, the small cap index on the BSE and the NSE lost value. Frontline stocks Infosys, L&T, Wipro, and ICICI led the rally.

The BSE Sensex, after opening at 6462.16 points, went downhill in the early part of the day until noon. In the afternoon session, the index gained bounced back to hit Thursday's close. In the final hour of trade, the index surged ahead to close with a gain of 20.56 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty, on similar lines, moved in the red for most part of the day. After hitting an intra-day low of 1975.95 points just before noon, the index bounced back. Backed by buying interest in the closing hour, the index managed to end the day's trading with a marginal gain of 0.08 per cent.

Intense trading activity took place on the counters of integrated tea players, as market participants bought on expectations of strong results. Harrisons Malayalam hit a century as the stock reached a new 52-week high of Rs 104.5. Accompanied by an eight-fold jump in volumes, it surged ahead by 15 per cent to end the session at Rs 101.85.

Other major gainers in the sector were Bombay Burmah, Goodricke, Warren Tea, Williamson Tea and Dhunseri Tea.

Among the chlor-alkali industry players, Punjab Alkalies was a significant gainer. About four lakh shares changed hands on the BSE; this was two times Thursday's volume. It put on gains of about 6 per cent. The stock has gained 25 per cent in the last five trading sessions. Kanoria Chemicals was the other gainer at 4.5 per cent. Other companies in the industry such as Chemfab Alkalies, Sree Rayalseema Alkalies and Bihar Caustic declined marginally.

The Cabinet's go-ahead on the Sethusamudram project created buying interest in Dredging Corporation. The stock opened on a strong note - Rs 12 higher than Thursday's close. Accompanied by a seven-fold jump in volumes, the stock closed with a gain of 4.77 per cent.

TV 18 closed lower by 5 per cent at Rs 269. The other news channel operator, NDTV was down marginally. Reacting to reports that it had been granted licence by Canada Radio and Television Commission to air its English channels across Canada, the stock was able to cut down on the slide.

Falling metal prices appeared to have caused the slide in metal stocks in the major Asian markets. Reflecting a similar pattern, most of the metal stocks closed lower in the domestic markets.

Among the aluminium stocks, Hindalco and Madras Aluminium were the major losers. In the ferrous sector, SAIL, Tata Sponge Iron, Monnet Ispat, Sesa Goa, Jindal Vijaynagar and Ispat Industries were down by over 1 per cent.

FDC was up by over 5 per cent in intra-day trade after an announcement that it had been granted approval by the USFDA for its facility in Maharashtra to manufacture medicines to treat the eyes. The stock later closed with a gain of 3 per cent at Rs 46.65.

Elder Pharma, Zandu Pharmaceutical, AstraZeneca Pharma and Dishman Pharmaceuticals were the other gainers in the pharma sector.

After opening on a firm note, Aptech lost considerable value in the later hours of the morning session. A block deal was reported on the counter towards the later part of the trading session. The stock lost 9 per cent to close at Rs 51.7.

Other major losers in the IT sector were Datamatics Technologies, Teledata Informatics, Rolta and D-Link.

Prominent gainers on the Nifty were HPCL, Tata Tea, Hero Honda, Ranbaxy, BPCL and Dr Reddy's.

Zee Telefilms, Cipla, Reliance Energy, Bharti Tele-Ventures, HDFC Bank and ACC figured among the losers in the Nifty constituents.

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Indices end positive after languishing in flat terrain