The Hindu Business Line : Mixed trend prevails

A mixed trend prevailed in the markets. Despite the advances outnumbering the losers, the markets failed to make any major moves. Pharma and metal stocks were highly traded. While metal stocks lost, pharma stocks surged ahead in a rather a range-bound market.

The Sensex, after opening on a strong note, moved for part of the day in the positive territory with a gain of about 15 points at 6729.9. The S&P CNX Nifty opened almost flat. After trading in the positive territory for the first part of the day, it moved into the negative territory to touch a low of 2081.2 points. Towards the close, it recovered its losses and remained unchanged at 2087.55 points.

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TCS, which lost value, made a difference in the movements of the bellwether indices, which accounted for three points on the Nifty. Pharma stocks were in the limelight, as most of them clocked gains on strong volumes.

Information that Strides Acrolab and Matrix Laboratories had agreed on a merger proposal at their respective board meetings propelled Strides to a new high of Rs 295.9. The stock later cooled down to close at Rs 284.35, registering a gain of 13.22 per cent. A quantum jump in share volumes of 22 lakh shares was clocked on the BSE. Matrix registered a marginal gain of Rs 2.55 to close at Rs 186.9. Through this merger, the companies intend to combine their relative strengths in the US and Japanese markets.

Other major gainers in the pharma sector were Suven Life Sciences, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Unichem Laboratories, Orchid Chemicals, Aurobindo Pharma and Wyeth, all of which gained more than 3 per cent.

Metal stocks were down due to lowering of prices by metal majors to reflect the trend in the global markets. China has been taking measures to lower the consumption of steel. Hindalco and National Aluminium have lowered the prices of aluminium by about 2.5 per cent. National Aluminum was down by about 2 per cent at Rs 143.15, while Hindalco was down by 1.52 per cent. The cut down in prices by steel major SAIL caused a negative sentiment in the stock. The stock, with a two-fold jump in volumes, had shot down by 3.75 per cent to close at Rs 52.6. Riding along the wave were Lloyd Steel, Uttam Galva, Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys, Ispat Industries, Jindal Stainless, Tata Metaliks and Kirloskar Ferrous Industries.

Hindustan Motors surged ahead by about 7.34 per cent, leaving other auto companies behind. The stock on strong volumes closed at Rs 33.65 after touching the day's high of Rs 34.1. The surge comes on the back of expansion plans of its Chennai facility, which assembles cars from the Mitsubishi stable.

Two-wheeler majors Baja Auto, Hero Honda Motors, and TVS Motor gained more than 1 per cent after all of them declared a rise in sales volumes in May. Maruti Udyog lost 1.2 per cent after it declared a fall in sales volume last month. The stock hit a low of Rs 459.4, and subsequently, it recovered a part of its losses to close at Rs 460.65.

Significant gainers among the Nifty constituents were Hindustan Lever, Colgate, Reliance Energy, ICICI Bank, Ranbaxy and GAIL.

Prominent losers in the Nifty list were HCL Technologies, Tata Power, Tata Steel, SBI and Infosys.

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