The Hindu Business Line : Sector-oriented indices gain

ON Monday, the markets opened on a positive note with the bulls in the driver's seat. The bulls maintained their hold over the markets for nearly the entire day. The bellwether indices put on smart gains in the opening hours; however, they lost steam in the last hour.

The advances-declines ratio was equally split among the gainers and losers, indicating that the bull-run failed to sustain until the closing. A majority of the sector-oriented indices closed with gains; leading them were the consumer durables, capital goods and FMCG indices.

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Opening on a strong note, the Sensex touched a high of 7,983.3 points, recording yet another record. The index was range-bound and yet again shied away from the 8,000-mark. Losing steam towards the closing, it dropped by about 70 points. Closing at 7925.24, it recorded a gain of 25.47 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty moved on similar lines, and the day's low came towards the end of the session. It later recovered a bit to close at 2,422.95 points.

FMCG stocks ended on a bullish note, the sector-oriented index on the BSE closed with a gain of 1.18 per cent. Major gainers were GTC, Liberty Shoes, Godfrey Phillips, ITC, Procter & Gamble and Marico. Hindustan Lever, Ruchi Soya, VST Industries and Colgate featured among the losers.

Software stocks ended on a mixed note; frontline stocks were equally split among the gainers and losers. The IT index on the BSE lost close to 1 per cent. The sharp gains in the last week on the back of large deals for contacts came in for a correction. Ramco Systems, GTL, Rolta India, Cranes Software, Mastek and Datamatics Technology bore the brunt of the downturn, with each of them losing more than 2 per cent. Blue Star Infotech was a clear odd one out. Backed by buying support, the stock hit the upper circuit filter and gained 20 per cent. A sharp jump in volumes at 3.6 lakh shares was recorded on its counter. Scandent Solutions, Megasoft, Mascon Global and NIIT were among the gainers.

A majority of the tea garden stocks featured among the prominent gainers. Harrisons Malayalam opened on a strong note. It was backed by a surge in volumes and gained 20 per cent, hitting the circuit filter. Investors appeared to have factored in the rising prices of rubber in the global market, which saw a sharp correction recently. Volumes were up more than 10-fold on its counter. Mcleod Russel was another significant gainer; it closed with a gain of 17 per cent. Other gainers were Apeejay Tea, Dhunseri Tea, Goodricke, Jayshree and Williamson Tea Assam.

Metal stocks traded on a mixed note. Aluminium stocks — Hindalco and National Aluminium gained more than 2 per cent. While Madras Aluminium closed flat, India Foils lost 1 per cent. Mahindra Ugine, Binani Industries, Lloyds Steels, JSW Steel and Nava Bharat Ferro featured among the list of losers. Kalyani Steel, Sun Flag Iron & Steel, Man Industries and National Steel Agro were among the major gainers.

Essar Steel was one of the most active counters; information of a deal created interest in the stock with the volumes going up to 18 lakh shares. Essar Steel is to buy two steel mill units from INI Steel of South Korea in a deal valued at $100 million (about Rs 440 crore). The stock gained 5 per cent over Friday's close.

Announcements from Nagarjuna Construction that it had bagged an order worth Rs 177 crore for a drinking water project in Hyderabad failed to create much of an interest. The stock closed flat at Rs 235. Investors appeared to have factored in the recent bull-run prior to its stock split.

Volumes on the Deccan Chronicle counter were higher on the back of information that it is to acquire a 100 per cent stake in Odyssey India, a retail chain. The stock, however, slipped by 4.7 per cent. At Rs 304.2, the stock has shed 11.7 per cent since a week ago.

Prominent gainers among the Nifty list were Gujarat Ambuja, ABB, VSNL, Cipla, Glaxo, Hero Honda and SBI.

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