The Hindu Business Line : Sensex recovers after initial hiccups on funds buying

Trading Highlights
Nifty crosses 3,700 points level
Auto stocks in the limelight
IT stocks subdued
ONGC's m-cap crossed Rs 2 lakh crore

Though the wave of institutional buying support of the kind that the first few hours of Monday's trade witnessed was not present on Tuesday, the markets still managed to post gains by the close of the week's second trading session.

With no dip in the flow of funds from institutional investors, both domestic and foreign, the benchmark indices showed no signs of declining despite some setbacks early during Tuesday's session. Starting the session on a marginally positive note, the key indices took a beating within the first two hours of commencement of trade.

Despite the presence of considerable volatility, the key indices, including the BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) and the NSE's S&P CNX Nifty index, clawed their way back up into positive territory on the back of institutional buying support. Intraday, the Sensex had `yoyoed' within a 190 points range and there were three gainers for every two losers from among the set of 30 stocks. While the Sensex closed at 12,462 points, up 0.41 per cent, the NSE Nifty Index settled at 3,720 points, up 0.74 per cent.

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The benchmark index Sensex has gained 5.7 per cent or 679 points in eight straight sessions. Among the 30 Sensex stocks, 19 closed in the positive, while 11 closed in the red.

ONGC was the biggest gainer of the day. The stock surged 4.4 per cent to Rs 1,440, and became the second company to cross the Rs 2 lakh crore market-cap league following Wipro, which had done it in 2000.

Sector Focus

Amongst the sectors from which stocks were buzzing on Tuesday, included auto, power, and entertainment and media industries. Counters from other sectors such as pharmaceuticals, cement, banking, FMCG and telecommunications were a mixed bag with a near-equal number of both gainers and losers.

The big gainers during the day from the auto space were Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Udyog, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor and ancillary companies such as Goetze India and Saint Gobain Securit were all in the black.

Amongst the new IPO listings on Tuesday, Kamdhenu Ispat closed with a gain of about 82 per cent over its issue price of Rs 25. However, Ratnamani Metals & Tubes, the other IPO that opened trading on the NSE on Tuesday, closed the day's session at a price that was 7 per cent lower than its issue price of Rs 473.

Stock Specific action

With the prospect of increased competitive pressures from other emerging airline companies and possibly with an eye on better coordinating its synergies with Air Sahara, Jet Airways has announced the appointment of Mr Dale Moss as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. In his last assignment, Mr Moss had served as Director of worldwide sales for British Airways. The stock was down marginally at Rs 957.

Maharashtra Seamless' board-appointed Committee of Directors has allotted 8,59,220 equity shares of Rs 5 each of the company at a premium of Rs 248 per share upon exercise of the conversion option for 5,000 Zero Coupon Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) of $ 1,000 each into equity shares of the company. There has been an increase in the company's capital. The stock was up over 3.6 per cent at Rs 357.