The Hindu Business Line : Reliance, infotech stocks shine

THE markets opened on a weak note with the bellwether indices dipping into the red in the morning session. The mid-cap and small-cap sectors continued to outperform the frontline stocks, which could be gauged from the respective indices. Aided by a weaker rupee, the bulls appeared to have consolidated their hold over the markets. The general market mood was positive with a majority of the sectors closing with gains. The advances-declines ratio was evened out, which was marginally in favour of the gainers.

The BSE Sensex opened a notch higher than Tuesday's close, owing to lack of interest in the opening session the index dipped to touch the day's low of 7726.98 points.

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After quite a bit of ups and downs the index marched its way northwards to the day's high of 7807.67 points. The Sensex recorded a gain of 60.43 points to close at 7805.43.

The S&P CNX Nifty reflected a similar pattern. After some sporadic activity in the opening session, the index picking up steam strode on to record a gain of 0.71 per cent. Reliance and the software majors provided the much-needed backing helping the bellwether indices close in the positive territory.

Technology stocks were in the limelight; investors appeared to have bought technology stocks on a weaker rupee hoping for higher realisations.

Small cap stocks — Aztec Software, Spanco Telesystems, Scandent Solutions, Datamatics Technologies and Moschip Semiconductor featured among the major gainers. Other gainers were NIIT, Allsec Technologies, Kale Consultants and Cranes Software.

The auto and auto ancillaries sectors also witnessed considerable activity. The auto index on the BSE closed with gain of 1 per cent.

Major gainers in this sector were Balkrishna Industries, Maharashtra Scooters, RK Forgings, Munjal Auto, Amtek Auto and Kinetic Motors.

The pharma sector outperformed the bellwether indices. Major gainers in this space were lesser-known companies Jagsonpal Pharma, Torrent Gujarat, Panacea Biotech, Ajanta Pharma and Wanbury.

Accompanied by a 11-fold jump in volumes Aurobindo Pharma recorded a sharp gain of 5.68 per cent.

Interest in the stock appears to have come on the back of reports that the company had received tentative approvals for its drug from the US authorities under the AIDS relief emergency plan.

Announcements from KEC International that it had received orders aggregating Rs 150 crore for power transmission equipment from Algeria and Afghanistan created buying interest in the market. A substantial jump in volumes was recorded on its counter.

Gaining sharply the stock touched a 52-week high of Rs 296 in intra-day trading. It later closed with a gain 8.66 per cent.

Reports that Dewan Housing was in talks to raise funds for expanding its asset base appears to have created interest in the stock. Backed by a surge in volumes the stock put on a sharp gain. Closing at the upper circuit filter it recorded a new high of Rs 72.5.

Nagarjuna Construction, which bagged an order worth Rs 108 crore for construction of a flyover and a factory from Ircon International, did not make much headway. The stock gained 0.7 per cent on flat volumes.

Intense activity was recorded on the JB Chemicals counter on information that the company was scouting for acquisitions of drug companies in the Russian market.

Opening on a positive note, the stock touched an intra-day high of Rs 102. It later closed a few notches below the Rs 100-mark recording a gain of 4.62 per cent.

Block deals were reported on the GTL counter, which helped the stock to close at Rs 125.65 recording a gain of 8.9 per cent.

Significant gainers among the Nifty constituents were Tata Power, Bajaj Auto, Zee Telefilms, IPCL, MTNL, Wipro and National Aluminium.

Prominent losers on the Nifty list were SAIL, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Colgate, Shipping Coporation and Cipla.

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