The Hindu Business Line : IT stocks shine amid weak condition

AFTER a spate of gains in the past weeks touching record highs, the markets went into a negative mood on Thursday. Markets opened flat, following Wednesday's weak close. Profit taking and slow down of FII investments coupled with a hike in the interest rate by the US Federal Reserve appeared to have weakened the sentiment in the markets on Thursday.

The BSE Sensex opened with a gap of 18 points, as the bulls appeared to be nowhere around. The Sensex moved flat for about an hour before dipping into the negative territory. In the post-lunch session, which was marked by a bearish sentiment, the Sensex plunged deep into the red to touch a low of 9117 points. A minor rally at the end of the day's session helped the Sensex close at 9170.4, down by about 0.8 per cent.

Click here for table

Moving on similar lines, the S&P CNX Nifty touched the day's high of 2821.5 points in the initial minutes of trading. However, from then, dominated by a negative sentiment, the Nifty dived to touch its low of 2763.4 points. The Nifty ended the day's session with a loss of 0.9 per cent.

IT and technology stocks appeared to be the only prominent gainers on Thursday as most indices on the BSE closed in the red. Leading the losers list were consumer durables, FMCG, healthcare and banking indices.

The consumer durables, which have been on a sharp uptrend in the recent sessions, received a set back. Leading the losers pack were Titan Industries, Whirlpool, Hitachi Home, Goldiam International and Videocon Appliances.

Luggage players - VIP Industries and Blow Plast - also closed lower by 1.8 and 0.9 per cent respectively.

Among jewellery stocks, Su-Raj Diamond was a prominent loser closing lower by 1.45 per cent. A few stocks such as Bajaj Electricals, Blue Star and Vaibhav Gems bucked the trend.

Tea players received a jolt, with many players in the sector closing lower by more than one per cent. Warren Tea, Williamson Tea Assam and Jayshree Tea were among the prominent losers in the tea industry. Tata Tea closed lower by 1.7 per cent. However, a few stocks in the tea sector managed buck the trend, which included Parry Agro, Harrison Malayalam and Assam Company.

The negative sentiment also crept into the coffee industry with Tata Coffee and CCL Products shedding value.

Cigarette players VST Industries, GTC Industries and Godfrey Phillips shed value.

Other prominent losers included Ruchi Infrastructure, Colgate, Bata, Satnam Overseas and Emami.

Across-the-board declines were registered in the banking sector. Prominent among the losers were Union Bank, Kotak Bank, Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda and ICICI Bank. UTI Bank, which saw an intense activity of about 2.2 lakh shares changing hands on Wednesday, remained subdued on Thursday. The stock shed about Rs 22 on Thursday. Bank of India was another sharp loser, which shed about 6 per cent.

Karnataka Bank, however, managed to reverse the trend to close flat at Rs 112.4.

The healthcare sector was yet another prominent loser on Thursday. Bilcare, Nicholas Piramal, RPG Life Sciences, Matrix, Ind-Swift and Torrent Pharma were among the top losers. AztraZeneca Pharma, Venus Remedies and Biocon were among the few to end on a positive note.

Accompanied by a four-fold jump in volumes Vimta Labs hit the circuit filter to close with a 10-per cent gain.

Top gainers among the Nifty constituents included Satyam Computer, MTNL, Hindalco, Infosys Technologies, Cipla, Zee Telefilms, HDFC, Larsen & Toubro and GAIL.

Prominent losers were Dabur, VSNL, Punjab National Bank, SBI, Jet Airways, Steel Authority, Ranbaxy and ITC.