The Hindu Business Line : FII buying puts markets back on positive territory

Reversing the trend witnessed on Friday, markets bounced back strongly amid heightened buying interest. The breadth of the market remained largely positive; as many as 791 stocks advanced, while 507 of them shed value.

Liquidity continued to flood the markets, propelling them to higher levels. Despite market observers and a few brokerages indicating that Indian market is overvalued and advising investors to exercise caution, FIIs exuded bullish sentiment and bought more equities than they sold.

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Event of the day

Reliance Communication Ventures-last of the four demerged entities from Reliance Industries made its trading debut at Rs 299 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Analysts tracking the developments in the Reliance Group had estimated the value of Reliance Communications to be in the range of Rs 275-350 per share. The stock reached an intra-day high of Rs 309 but finished lower at Rs 290.8.

Other stocks in the Reliance stable also had a fine outing.

Reliance Energy was up by 3.3 per cent .The counter was buzzing with activity as close to 103 lakh shares changed hands.

Reliance Natural Resources, which got listed on Friday, also witnessed huge volumes of over 90 lakh shares on the BSE, which helped it record a gain of 5.5 per cent.

Sector focus

Metals stocks, particularly from the steel sector continued to add sheen to the market. Signs of revival in the sector appears to have caught investors' fancy. Tata Steel, Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys, Essar Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, JSW Steel and Bhushan Steel rallied sharply.

Buzzing stocks

The Budget effect appears to have caught on with the construction and infrastructure stocks. The stock that hogged the limelight was KEC Infrastructures. With volumes of close to 75 lakh shares, the stock flared up by 14.1 per cent to finish at Rs 50.9. Kalpataru Power was also on fire. The stock ended with a gain of 20 per cent. Orient Abrasives, Kernex Microsystems and Gateway Distriparks were other sizzlers.

Tea loses favour

After brewing rich gains over the last few trading sessions, tea stocks found themselves out of flavour. Williamson Magor, which has been a prominent gainer over the last one month, was down by 4.5 per cent. Jay Shree Tea, Williamson Tea, McLeod Russel remained subdued.

Stock-specific action

Linde AG, Germany's biggest maker of industrial gases, agreed to buy BOC Group of the UK to become world leader in the market for industrial gases. BOC India, in which BOC Group has about 55 per cent stake reacted positively to the announcement as the stock advanced by about 11 per cent.

VIP Industries shot up by 20 per cent at its close of Rs 127.2. The Board of Directors of the company would meet on March 9 to consider the feasibility of undertaking a merger of Blow Plast into the company

Buoyed by reports of having bagged an order worth $170 million from Stemcor of UK, Uttam Galva surged by 18.4 per cent.