Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Nov 18, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Nov 18, 2005 |
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Markets
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Commentary Columns - Sensor Frontline stocks save the day Alagappan Arunachalam
EARLY in the session on Thursday, the markets appeared to be depressed followed by a bout of caution. A bomb scare early in the day appears to have caused the cautious sentiment. Towards close the bulls swayed the markets in their favour with many indices closing with gains. Though the markets closed on a positive note, the advances-declines ratio was evened out as the recovery appeared to have come too late in the day. The BSE Sensex opened on a positive note at 8611.8 points, however, giving into negative sentiment that prevailed in the early part of the day, the index soon plunged into the red within an hour of trading. The mood among participants having turned cautious helped in a mild rally to recover from the day's low of 8547.3 points. The Sensex moved within a narrow band until late in the afternoon. The onset of a positive sentiment resulted from a buying spree in frontline stocks as the index closed with a gain of 53.6 points at 8649.5. The S&P CNX Nifty reflected a similar pattern with the day's high coming towards the close. It closed with a 0.8 per cent gain above the 2600-mark. A mixed trend was visible in the oil and gas sector, the advances-declines ratio of the sector-oriented index on the BSE was tipped marginally in favour of the gainers. The PSU oil marketing companies and standalone refineries shed value. Natural gas suppliers — Gujarat Gas, Petronet LNG and GAIL (India) were among the prominent ones. Technology-oriented indices on the BSE and NSE were the only ones to have registered declines. The BSE index fell by about 0.5 per cent while the BSE Teck index lost 0.2 per cent, indicating a negative sentiment. Major losers in the IT sector were Tele Data Informatics, Spanco Telesystems, Ramco Systems, Scandent Solutions, Megasoft and Datamatics Technologies. Shyam Telecom, Opto Circuits and Himachal Futuristic were among the major losers in the telecom sector. All round buying activity in the media industry reflected a positive sentiment. A large number of stocks in the sector registered gains in excess of 2 per cent. Stocks that advanced included were Saregama, Crest Animation, Television-Eighteen, NDTV, Adlabs, Cinevista, Creative Eye, ETC Networks, Pentamedia and Pritish Nandy. A strong positive sentiment in the auto sector helped the sector-oriented index on the BSE record a sharp gain of 1.5 per cent. The advances outnumbered the losers reflecting an overall buying activity in the sector. Except for a few stocks of the likes of Force (Bajaj Tempo), Escorts and Punjab Tractors almost all automobile manufacturers closed with gains.
Stock-specific action
The Minister for Shipping announced that Shipping Corporation of India plans to expand its fleet to meet the increased demand by investing Rs 5,200 crore until 2007. He also reaffirmed the 15-per cent stake divestment proposal. The announcement appears to have enthused interest among market participants, however, the stock managed to register only a two-per cent increase. Thermax reported a two-fold rise in profits for the second quarter aided by a surge in other income. Consolidated earnings, however, registered a 55-cent growth. A surge in volumes was noted on its counter as the stock registered a 2.6-per cent gain. After market close,it announced that its cogen division bagged two orders valued at Rs 179 crore for setting up captive power plants. A surge in volumes was recorded IDFC's counter after a leading FII included it in one of its indices. The stock closed with gain of 1.8 per cent. Reliance surged ahead by 1.4-percent after a leading rating agency raised its foreign currency debt to investment grade.
Post-market announcements
Alps Industries announced that it had bagged orders worth $2.35 million (about Rs 11 crore) from Spring Industries of the US for supply of home furnishing products.
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