The Hindu Business Line : Tea sector continues its losing streak

On Thursday, volatility was the name of the game. Selling pressure in the early hours hammered the Sensex and the Nifty. The Sensex recorded an intra-day drop of about 130 points. The bulls, however, had the last laugh with both the indices closing on a positive note.

Infosys and Grasim helped the Sensex close with gains. Bharti Tele and HDFC featured among the top losers among the Sensex constituents. The market breadth was tipped in favour of the losers with about eight stocks advancing for every 11 that declined.

Sector watch

Cement stocks stole the limelight on a volatile day. Second-rung stocks in the cement sector were among the major gainers. Birla Corporation and Mysore Cements were the favorites in the markets with each of them posting gains of more than 9 per cent. Prism Cements and Mangalam Cement, which attracted substantial buying interest, gained more than 5 per cent. Other gainers included Chettinad Cement, ACC, Gujarat Ambuja, India Cements, Prism Cement and Ultratech. Dalmia Cement, however, bucked the trend to register a decline of about 3 per cent.

The plantation sector continued to move in the red. Warren Tea, Dhunseri, Williamson Tea Assam and Apeejay were among the major losers. Tata Coffee also declined by about 2 per cent. McLeod Russel was the only prominent stock to have bucked the trend. The stock closed marginally above its previous close.

Buzzing stocks

Stocks of the demerged companies of Reliance Industries continued to hog the limelight. Reliance Natural Resources cornered most of the attention. The stock recorded yet another sharp rise of about 9 per cent. However, the others - Reliance Capital Ventures, Reliance Energy Ventures and Reliance Communication Ventures were subject to profit booking.

Neyveli Lignite, KEC Infrastructure, Kesoram Industries, Hindustan Sanitaryware and Amar Remedies were among the others that recorded heightened activity.

Stock-specific action

Celebrity Fashions, which came out with an IPO in December, continued its losing streak into the fifth straight day.

The 4 per cent fall was sharper than the declines in the preceding sessions. The stock closed at Rs 169 about 6 per cent below its offer price.

Strong buying interest could be gauged on Areva's counter with volumes rising by about 10-fold. The stock has gained about Rs 170 since the beginning of March.

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Market participants appeared to be unenthused by the performance of Motor Industries.

The company reported a 36-per cent revenue growth and a 3-per cent earnings growth. The stock closed on low volumes shed about 3 per cent.

ICICI Bank attracted buying interest on reports that the bank plans to expand its overseas operations by opening branches in Europe, Africa and West Asia. The stock closed with a 2-per cent gain.

Heightened trading activity took place on Ranbaxy's counter on reports that the company plans to sell Zenotech Laboratories' injectable cancer drugs in Russia, Latin America and Brazil.

However, an overwhelming negative sentiment on its counter caused a drop of about 3 per cent. Zenotech attracted some buying interest with stock gaining by about 5 per cent on higher volumes.