The Hindu Business Line : Sensex snaps 4-day rally

Stock watch
Construction & power equipment manufacturers continued their winning streak.
HPCL, BPCL gains on hopes of duty cut on petrol, diesel

Frontline stocks failed to hold their ground on Friday, as negative sentiment appears to have set in after some gains. The BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty, snapping their 4-day gaining streak, closed lower.

ICICI Bank, HDFC, L&T and ITC dragged the broad market indices into the red. The negative sentiment was reflected in the advances-declines ratio, which was tipped in favour of the losers at 4:6.

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Even as negative sentiment prevailed among the frontline stocks, mid-cap and small-cap stocks marched their way upwards. Leading the gainers in the mid-cap space were Voltas, Aban Loyd Chiles and Ruchi Infrastructure.

SECTORS IN THE LIMELIGHT

Construction and power equipment stocks maintained their momentum for yet another day.

Power equipment manufacturers such Kalpataru Power Transmission and Jyoti Structures featured among the top gainers.

ABB, BHEL, Cummins India and Thermax also gained.

The bullish sentiment also trickled into power generation space. Major gainers were Neyveli Lignite, Reliance Energy, Tata Power and Torrent Power. Power Trading Corp also gained about six per cent.

Nagarjuna Construction, Ansal Housing, IVRCL Infrastructure, MSK Projects, Ingersoll Rand and Ansal Properties featured among the top gainers in the construction sector.

BUZZING STOCKS

Supreme Industries generated considerable interest with the stock closing higher by about 6.6 per cent. Positive sentiment appears to have set in after the budgetary announcements slashing customs duties on polymers.

Sintex, which has been garnering attention of late, continued its gaining streak. Increased outlay in the education sector and reduced polymer prices has generated a positive sentiment on this stock. The stock closed with a gain of about 2.2 per cent.

SECTOR TRENDS

A positive sentiment prevailed among metal stocks. Hindustan Zinc, Jindal Steel, Mukand, Sterlite Industries, Welspun Gujarat and Binani Industries recoded gains in excess of five per cent. Vesuvius India also recorded a gain of about 2.7 per cent. However, frontline stocks — Sesa Goa and Essar Steel shed more than 1.6 per cent each.

A similar sentiment prevailed in the plantation space. Apeejay Tea, Bombay Burmah, Goodricke, Harrisons, Jayshree, Parry Agro, and Duncans (NSE) closed lower. Tata Coffee also declined by 1.4 per cent. However, the BM Khaitan group of companies bucked the trend. Williamson Tea Assam and McLeod Russel closed with gains of about 4.6 per cent.

EVENT-SPECIFIC ACTION

RPG Transmission, which bagged an order worth Rs 110 crore from PowerGrid Corporation of India for supply and construction of a transmission line recorded a surge. The stock closed at the day's high of Rs 159.2 recording a 20 per cent gain with about 10.5 lakh shares changing hands.

HPCL and BPCL recorded gains on reports that the Government may cut duties on petrol and diesel. Heightened activity was recorded on their counters as the stocks gained 2.1 and 0.4 per cent respectively.

PROMINENT GAINERS AND LOSERS

Tata Motors, Bharti Tele, Maruti, Zee Telefilms and ACC were among the prominent gainers. M&M, Infosys and GAIL featured in the losers list.