The Hindu Business Line : FII buying keeps indices out of red

`Unpredictable volatility is here to stay', is the clear signal that the stock markets seemed to send to investors on Monday. The opening trading session of the week witnessed considerable pressures from both the bulls and the bears. The benchmark indices swayed in and out of the red and the overall market sentiment seemed to change by the hour.

General market trend

The markets opened in the red and though buying support set in every time the indices dipped into negative territory, the general lack of confidence at higher levels ensured that a bout of profit-booking broke out every time the indices crested intra-day. The yo-yoing sentiment as a result led to as much as a three per cent range within which the indices moved intra-day.

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After a roller-coaster ride through much of the morning and noon, both the benchmark indices - BSE Sensex and the NSE's S&P CNX Nifty index -

seemed to be settling down well into negative territory. But a late session bull-run helped the indices post a respectable one per cent gain at close of the day's trade. With institutional investors cherry picking stocks at the lower price bands, there were quite a few stocks that managed to mark the day with handsome gains.

Sector focus

The major sectors that were in focus on Monday's trading session, included auto, cement and construction. Information technology, metals, infrastructure, banking, telecom and pharma sector stocks had mixed fortunes during the day's trade.

As was amply reflected by the indices, the first trading session of the week witnessed far more action amongst mid-cap and small-cap stocks. While the BSE Sensex gained just over a percentage point as at close, the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices were up over 2.3 per cent each.

Stock-specific action

Nagarjuna Construction Company has announced that it has secured two new orders aggregating Rs 422 crore. The first order is for the construction of a mega sports complex at Ranchi valued at Rs 152 crore from the Government of Jharkhand and the second order is for Gaothan Feeder Separation Scheme valued at Rs 270 crore from Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company. The stock shot up 8.8 per cent on Monday to close at Rs 257.

ABG Shipyard has announced that it has received yet another order for the construction of another Anchor Handling tug - 80Ton Bollard Pull for Offshore applications, at a price of $10.55 million from Lamnalco Ltd, Cyprus. This is the 11th Ship order from Lamnalco Ltd to the Company. ABG Shipyard has already delivered five vessels and other five vessels are under construction for Lamnalco Ltd, Cyprus. This export order is entitled for subsidy as per the prevailing ship building subsidy scheme of the Government. The stock closed Monday up by about 3.7 per cent. The stock has run up by almost 20 per cent during the past one week.

Financial Technologies India has informed that at a meeting held on June 17, the company's board has recommended a final dividend of 260 per cent for the year. During the year, the company has paid an interim dividend of 40 per cent and accordingly, the total dividend for the year aggregates 300 per cent. The stock was trading down about one per cent at Rs 1,191.