The Hindu Business Line : SBI, Grasim buck bearish trend

TECH bellwether Infosys Technologies' third-quarter performance did not impress the street, which responded by sending the stock into a tailspin. In the process, indices, headed southwards. The Sensex finished at 9380.88, down by 64.42 points; the Nifty ended lower by 20.1 points at 2850.70 points. Reliance and ICICI Bank also contributed to market weakness.

On a day when the market mood was bearish, Sensex stocks that stood out included SBI, Grasim and Satyam Computer.

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In event-specific price action,

* Indications that disinvestment was on track led to a 20-per cent rise in the Engineers India stock.

* Bartronics - a provider of technology-based product tracking services - had a fine outing, as it listed with gains of about 60 per cent on the offer price of Rs 75. The stock closed at Rs 111 after touching a high of Rs 135.

* Celebrity Fashions - a garment exporter with a presence in the branded space - had a moderate debut closing the day with gains of 27 per cent over the offer price of Rs 180, The stock touched a high of Rs 269 and closed at Rs 229.

* Markets embraced news that Reliance Industries will formally be anointed as the promoter of Reliance Industrial Infrastructure and the marked up the latter's stock by about 10 per cent.

* The proposal of Kothari Sugars and Chemicals to hive of its chemical business spurred the stock by about 5 per cent, as it is now set to become a pure play in sugar.

* The buyback plan of Infomedia India led to a spurt of close to 10 per cent in its price; the company plans to buy back and cancel up to 14 per cent of equity at a price of Rs 249 per share.

* Markets warmed up to the completion of stake sale in Maruti by the Government at Rs 678.24; the stock was up about 2 per cent.

* The acquisition of an automotive engineering and design company by Tata Motors was received in a lukewarm manner; the stock did, however, closed in positive territory on a day when several large-cap stocks took a pounding.

Other prominent gainers were Dredging Corp, Balaji Telefilms, Piramyd Retail, Nilkamal Plastics and Saregama.