The Hindu Business Line : Waning momentum in rally

Equities held their ground in Thursday's trading; there was, however, palpable evidence of a weak undercurrent. Those that sported declines comfortably outpaced advancing stocks.

Even as a few large-cap stocks enjoyed a fine outing, a host of mid- and small-cap stocks ruled weak. Markets appear to have paused after the scorching gains over the past 15 trading sessions.

ONGC, Bharti-Tele Ventures, ITC, Maruti and Reliance powered gains in the Nifty and Sensex. Infosys was the day's dampener and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) IT Index was the only one that had a coat of red.

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Sector in limelight

Infrastructure was the magic word, as a host of stocks from the engineering and construction space marched ahead. The likes of Siemens, ABB, Larsen & Toubro, Voltas and Bharat Earth Movers were at the forefront.

Hindustan Construction, Eimco Elecon and Alstom Projects were among the few stocks that ended the day with gains in excess of 10 per cent.

Gammon, IVRCL, Era Construction, Nagarjuna Construction and Sadbhav Engineering, which listed on Wednesday, notched significant gains.

Buzzing stocks

Educomp Solutions, Suryajyoti Spinning and Hinduja TMT were stocks that sizzled outside of the infrastructure space. They enjoyed gains of about 10 per cent on the back of sizeable trading volumes.

For a stock that moves in a measured manner, Britannia Industries also sported smart gains.

Sector trends

Auto sector stocks ruled firm though the gains were not as pronounced as compared to the preceding two days. Tata Motors, Maruti and Ashok Leyland were notable gainers.

* Stocks from the metal space built on gains in recent weeks with the exception of Hindalco and NALCO; the upward trend was reflected in mid-cap stocks from this sector, too.

* Cement stocks, barring Gujarat Ambuja, took a breather after investors had marked them sharply over the preceding three sessions.

* Banking sector stocks were powered by gains in frontline PSU plays such as SBI, Oriental Bank and Punjab National Bank as well as HDFC Bank. A host of mid-sized banks such as Canara Bank, Corporation Bank and Union Bank, to name a few, also exhibited a firm undertone.

* Sugar and tea stocks ruled weak.

Event-specific action

GAIL made a smart move.

* Markets appeared to be impressed by the comfortable manner in which IOC's stake in GAIL was placed with quality institutional investors.

A favourable Supreme Court ruling on sales tax propped telecom stocks such as Bharti Tele, VSNL and Tata Teleservices.

* Sunil Hitech Engineers made a rousing debut and closed the day with gains in excess of 50 per cent.

* Infosys slipped as JP Morgan downgraded the stock to `neutral' from `buy'.

* ITI attracted attention as it bagged a sizeable order for setting base stations for a mobile network.

Prominent gainers/losers

ITC, P & G, Zenith, Kojam Finvest, Shreyas Shipping, Usha Martin, Wimplast, Batliboi, High Energy Batteries and Hyderabad Industries were the notable gainers. Prominent losers were Zodiac JRD, Agro Dutch, Wyeth, IL & FS Investmart, BPCL, Reliance Capital, Exide, Apollo Tyres, Kochi Refineries and Biocon.