The Hindu Business Line : Dr Reddy's stars on lacklustre day

Equities took a breather for the second day in a row, taking the Sensex farther from the 11K-mark with which it briefly had a dalliance in Tuesday's trading. That the decline was broad based is clear from the patterns in advancing and declining stocks. The latter outpaced gaining stocks by a factor of three. The trends across several indices also confirmed profit booking by investors. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks posted deeper losses as compared to the large-caps and cut across sectors.

Buzzing Stock

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The global major Sanofi-Aventis' move to settle with would-be competitors on one of its key drugs — the blood thinner Plavix — provided a spark to the Dr Reddy's stock. Sanofi-Aventis has paid a tidy sum to one of the competitors to protect its turf. There seems to be a possibility of a similar deal with Dr Reddy's to prevent the launch of a low-cost version of Plavix, the world's second largest selling drug after Pfizer's Lipitor. The Dr Reddy's stock was up by about 10 per cent and closed within kissing distance of the Rs 1,500 mark. Further gains may be in store till specifics of the deal, if any, are in the public domain.

Listing sparks

Two stocks, which have listed over the past week, sported a smart rise. Pratibha Industries continued its upward march, as investors accumulated this play on the infrastructure sector. For Nitco Tiles, the modest gains were significant as it helped build on a relatively lacklustre listing. Clearances that will enable Nitco to step up its import of marble five-fold perked sentiment.

Event-specific action

In price trends driven by corporate action, the notable ones were:

* Valecha Engineering was flat despite a further accretion to its order book.

* Aban Loyd Chiles was marked lower on news that it may sell one of its rigs.

* Investors were lukewarm to the corporate restructuring plans announced by Zee Telefilms.

* Noida Toll Bridge rose sharply, as HSBC Investments picked up a significant stake.

* Jet Airways shed value, as further stumbling blocks to its plans to buy out Sahara Airlines appear to have emerged. If the deal is not sewn up within the next couple of days, it may be a positive; investors are likely to be put off by the lack of clarity in the way the management has handled the deal.

Sector specific action

The decline in the Nifty and Sensex was led by the bigwigs from the information technology space — Infosys, Wipro and TCS. For a change, several engineering sector stocks were in the red, with BHEL being the notable exception. Consumer staples managed to end the day with a marginal decline aided by the firm trend in Hindustan Lever.

Gainers and Losers

Stocks that notched up sizeable gains included TV Today, Ingersoll Rand, Tulip IT Services, Jindal Stainless, Lanxess ABS, Jagran Prakashan, Trent, RPG Transmission, Sirpur Paper and Lyka Labs. Prominent in the losers list were Godrej Industries, Reliance Communication, Nandan Exim, KSB Pumps, Ind Swift, TVS Electronics, Zenith, Sterling Tools, Gabriel India and Bombay Dyeing.