The Hindu Business Line : Selling pressure in software, cement, steel

The markets continue to be caught in a bear hug. After a firm close last week, the markets opened on a positive note, but suddenly lost some steam during mid - session. With buying coming in a lower levels, BSE Sensex touched the day's high of 10552.38, but slipped thereafter. The Sensex lost 237.9 points (or 2.3 per cent) to close at 10213.46. The selling pressure was witnessed in key sectors such as software, cement and steel. However, select stocks in auto, energy and engineering stocks bucked the trend. The advances - decline ratio favoured declines, with 5 stocks in declining in value for every two stocks that gained.

Buzzing Stocks

Wockhardt gained Rs. 14 or 3.8 per cent to close at Rs. 387.20.The company announced that it signed an agreement with LSI, a UK-based company to market Vitix for the treatment of vitiligo popularly called leucoderma. The other buzzing stocks were Zee Telefilms, Hinduja TMT, HCL Infosystem, Larsen & Toubro and HDFC.

Sector Focus

In software sector, most of the major frontline stocks were down and closed in red. Infosys, Satyam Computer, Wipro, and Patni Computers lost between 2.5 per cent to 4 per cent. However, HCL Infosystems, Moser-Baer and MphasiS BFL Software were the ones that managed to hold the ground.

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Despite the positive trends on the GDP front from agriculture and its impact on rural spending, the FMCG sector had to bear the brunt of all round selling. Colgate lost about 5.26 per cent and closed at Rs 339.65.Gillette India shed 5.8 per cent to close at Rs. 722. Another prominent loser was HLL. The stocks that closed in the positive territory were Godrej Consumer and Marico Industries.

In the cement space, the stock price trends proved to be a mixed bag. The frontline stocks lost 5 per cent to 6 per cent. ACC lost about 5.53 per cent to close at Rs.742.70. Gujarat Ambuja, Birla Corp, Dalmia Cement and India Cements were the other stocks that lost heavily.

In engineering, Voltas was the stock that was hit badly. It lost 7.72 per cent and closed at Rs 830. The other key stocks such as ABB, Atlas Copco, Thermax, BHEL, Siemens, Engineers India and Bharat Electronics shed between 2.5 per cent to 4 per cent. Larsen & Toubro was the stock that bucked the overall trend gaining Rs. 71 to close at Rs 2263.

Stock-specific action

The Hind Rectifiers stock closed in the red, shedding Rs 24 during the day's trading. This was despite the company considering a stock split at its board meeting on June 14.

The NESCO ended the day at Rs 1353, losing Rs 69.3 in the day's trading. The weakness in the stock was despite the company considering a bonus issue at its forthcoming board meeting on June 12.

Prominent gainers and losers

The stocks that closed in the positive were Lokesh Machine, Prime Securities, Sesa Goa, Tata Coffee and McDowell. The losers that moved with the overall market trend were Bombay Dyeing, Macmillan, KEC International, Sterlite Industries and Raymond.