The Hindu Business Line : Tussle between bulls and bears

Trading highlights
Declines outnumber advances by about three times
Cement stocks back in the limelight
Metal stocks present a mixed bag

On Tuesday, the markets were on a roller coaster ride. There was a tussle between the bulls and the bears. While the bulls ruled the roost in frontline stocks, the bears wielded the upper hand in the mid-cap and small-cap space.

The rally in the bellwether indices was led by Reliance and cement stocks, which were the first to stage a recovery. The Sensex, which touched an intra-day low of 11,378 points, made a strong recovery to close in the positive territory.

Buzzing stocks

The positive sentiment continued to flow in the Godrej Industries stock. The stock hit the upper circuit for the third consecutive day. The announcement of a stock split appears to be behind the recent rally.

Sector focus

Cement stocks, which witnessed profit booking in recent sessions, made a strong comeback. Expectations of a strong demand and a price hike in the southern market appear to be behind the trend reversal.

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Stocks such as Dalmia Cement, India Cements, Mysore Cements and Prism Cement gained between 3 and 6 per cent. Other stocks such as Gujarat Ambuja, ACC, Grasim and Kesoram Industries also gained. UltraTech was the biggest gainer, adding about 10 per cent.

Real estate stocks continued their downward trend. Unitech, which witnessed a sharp run in recent weeks, hit the lower circuit filter in intra-day trade. Another prominent stock Ansal Infrastructure declined sharply by about 4.8 per cent to close at Rs 941.

Banking counters lost further ground. Despite the recovery in the broad markets, prominent banking stocks closed in the red. The losers' list included ICICI, SBI, Bank of Rajasthan, Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce.

With the dips in global metal prices having slowed down, a mixed sentiment prevailed in the metals sector. While Hindustan Zinc and Tata Steel closed lower by about 6 and 2 per cent respectively, Sterlite Industries gained about 2 per cent. Hindalco also gained sharply on the back of information that the company has hiked aluminium prices by Rs10, 000 per tonne.

Stock-specific action

Goetz India was in the limelight. The stock moved up sharply by about 16 per cent on information that Federal Mogul Corporation of the US had acquired an additional 25 per cent stake in the company.

Syndicate Bank, which reported a 96 per cent decline in profits for the fourth quarter, was subject to selling pressure. The stocks closed lower by about 6 per cent.

Prominent gainers and losers

Everest Kanto, Raymond, Varun Shipping, Malwa Cotton Spinning, Shah Alloy and Indian Hume Pipe were among the top gainers.

Prominent losers included stocks such as Essar Oil, Sadbhav Engineering, Zuari Industries, Jubilant Organsys and Lokesh Machines.