The Hindu Business Line : Bajaj Auto up on expansion plans

THE auto pack has been a favourite of the bourses during this week and leading them is Bajaj Auto. The stock touched its 52-week high of Rs 1,569.80 on Friday.

Dealers say the company's expansion plans are driving the interest in the stock.

Also, automobile stocks have been ignored for a while and there is now resurgence in sentiment about the sector.

The stock opened at Rs 1,537.10 and closed with a gain of Rs 14.30 on the NSE. Volumes have also been robust with turnover exceeding Rs 20 crore.

Bajaj Auto is focusing its sales activities on the higher range bikes - Avenger and Pulsar. It has plans of opening a series of high-end showrooms across the country for this range, branded Pro-Biking.

Analysts say that with lifestyle and aspiration changes among the youth, this segment could turn out to be a strong contributor to the company's bottom line.

Growth hopes trigger buying

DESPITE acquisition news propping up the VisualSoft counter, mid-cap IT companies are losing their sheen for investors. Mid-cap IT stocks, including Polaris Software, Geometric Software and Nucleus Software, succumbed to profit booking on Friday.

Dealers say investor interest in this sector is now on Aptech and NIIT. Analysts are predicting sound growth for these companies over the medium to long term and investors want to get early entry into these two counters.

Aptech touched an intra-day high of Rs 109.45, before ending at Rs 103. The counter witnessed total turnover exceeding Rs 64 crore on the NSE. Though NIIT shed a little on profit booking, the stock has been climbing steadily over the last month. It ended the week at Rs 307.65. The stock has appreciated close to 60 per cent in the last month. It opened on August 10 at Rs 192.65.

Defensive stocks to the fore

THE Sensex crossing of 8,000-mark has left a large section of the market jittery. While there are no concerns about overall market fundamentals, movements in certain sectors and stocks are now being viewed with caution. Most brokers are advising clients to book profits on speculative buys and move their money into defensive sectors.

Coming into dealers' radar now are stocks in the FMCG, pharmaceutical and banking sectors. Dealers say that stocks such as ITC, Dabur and HLL are increasingly included in investors' portfolio. As also are banking stocks, SBI being a particular favourite. Thanks to this view, SBI touched its 52-week high of Rs 862 on Friday. The stock ended at Rs 857.70, up almost 3 per cent from Thursday's close.

Veena Venugopal

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