The Hindu Business Line : Afternoon buying lifts benchmarks

A cautious sentiment ruled the markets ahead of the economic committee meeting of the Cabinet. Sentiment appeared to turn negative dragging the bellwether indices nearer to Wednesday's close.

However, bulls appear to have taken control over the markets in the afternoon using their muscle to push the indices higher. The advances-declines ratio, which stood at about 3:2, reflected the bullish undertone that prevailed towards close of Thursday's session.

The BSE Sensex opened with a positive gap of 17 points; however, it lost the opening gains in the early part of the session. A recovery in the afternoon hours helped Sensex closed on a positive note at 9323.25 points recording a gain of 66 points.

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The S&P CNX appeared to move in sync with the Sensex recording one per cent gain.

Among sector-oriented indices, oil and gas was the largest gainer followed by metal, capital goods, FMCG and healthcare. The BSE Bankex, which declined 0.4 per cent, was the lone loser. Sentiment on the small-cap stock was bullish as reflected by the advances ratio of the index constituents and a more than 1 per cent gain on the index.

Sharp gains of 2.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent in industry heavyweights Reliance and ONGC helped the oil and gas sector to close on a positive note. Essar Oil, Petronet LNG, Bongaigaon Refinery, Indraprastha Gas and Savita Chemicals were among the major gainers in the second rung stocks.

IBP was prominent among the losers after swap ratio for its merger with IOC had been revised. The stock closed lower by 2.5 per cent. Chennai Petroleum and Hindustan Oil Exploration also figured in the losers' list.

Despite declines registered on the counters of Tata Steel and Sesa Goa, the metals index closed on a positive note buoyed by gains in Hindalco, SAIL and National Aluminium. Other gainers in the metals space included Kalyani Steel, Maharashtra Seamless, Southern Iron and Steel, JSW Steel, Mahindra Ugine and Tinplate.

Prominent among the losers were Jindal Stainless, Deccan Gold, Mukand, Welspun Gujarat and National Steel Agro.

The top gainer among the BSE small-cap index constituents was GTC Industries, which had been moving range bound since the beginning of December. Other gainers in the small-cap space included SWIL, Manali Petrochemical, Archies, Amara Raja, Scooters India and Vishal Exports.

Intense buying activity took place on the counters of textile and retail stocks. Bannari Amman Spinning and Bombay Rayon Fashions were among the large gainers in the textile space. Arvind Mills was among the most active counters in the textile space, while Piramyd Retail occupied this slot in retail space.

Intense trading activity took place on Neyveli Lignite's counter on expectations of positive announcements from the Cabinet. The stock closed with a 3 per cent gain after information that the Government plans to defer stake dilution. A surge in volumes was also recorded on the counters of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers and National Fertilizers.

Stock-specific action

*A sharp surge in volumes was registered on Cipla. Market interest appears to have come on the back of media reports that the company had signed agreements with Boehringer Ingelheim of Germany to develop and supply drugs used to treat hypertension. The company, however, denied reports of such an agreement. The stock closed with a 2 per cent gain.

*Accompanied by a five-fold rise in volumes Hindustan Copper closed with a 5 per cent gain. Buying activity appears to have come on the back of expectations of a price hike. Sterlite Industries back by a surge in volumes closed with one per cent gain.

Prominent gainers among the Nifty constituents included Dabur, HDFC, IPCL, Tata Motors and L&T. Among the losers were Dr. Reddy's, VSNL, Hero Honda, SBI, GAIL, Tata Chemicals and Maruti.