• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Srividhya Sivakumar

Dalal Street had an action-packed day with buying witnessed across the board. Indian markets gained relentlessly on the back of renewed buying interest and strong global cues. Asian markets closed in green on speculation that the US Federal Reserve will lower interest rates to stoke growth and arrest a housing slump. The US markets followed suit and the blue-chip Dow average rose 123.27 points above its Tuesday's record close.

Back home, the day's rally was broad-based with all the sectoral indices ending in the green. However, the BSE-IT and Bankex indices were the top gainers for the day. The Sensex opened higher and remained in the positive terrain throughout the day. It rose to an intra-day high of around 116 points before it closed with a gain of 1.52 per cent. Nifty ended the day with a gain of 1.41 per cent.

Expectations of a strong Q2 from India Inc helped buoy the sentiments. The market breadth was tilted in favour of the bulls; the advance-decline ratio was 2.77:1.

Buzzing stocks

The newly listed stock, Gwalior Chemicals rose 2.61 per cent on the back of bulk deals on Wednesday. Petronet LNG surged 20 per cent with volumes as high as 10 times its two-week average. The stock rose on news of a possible stake sale in the company to Qatar. India is looking for 10 million tonne of extra LNG supply from Qatar and has offered a stake in Petronet LNG Ltd in exchange, according to unconfirmed sources

HDFC Bank, which rose close to 4 per cent, was the top gainer in the Sensex. The stock rose on expectations of an impressive second quarter results. Infosys Technologies, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and Tata Steel were some of the other gainers in the pack. The mid-cap and small cap counters also helped extend gains. Moser Baer, Dabur Pharma, Tube Investments, Eskay Knit and Dolphin Offshore were some counters that gained in the space.

Sector focus

The banks were in demand on expectations of a good second quarter result, owing to the increase in their treasury income. Bank of India, Karnataka Bank, Federal Bank, Oriental Bank, PNB and Union Bank were some of the gainers. Allahabad Bank gained 4.42 per cent. It has raised Rs 561.90 crore through private placement of redeemable subordinated debt instrument or lower tier-II bonds to strengthen its capital base.

Click here for table

The IT sector was back in the limelight on Thursday. The prominent gainers in the sector were D-Link, Carol Info, MRO-Tek, Polaris, Mastek and SSI. Moser Baer gained 19 per cent for the day.

Stocks in retail sector gained on expectations of a steady demand during the festival time. Pyramid Retail, Provogue, Shopper's Stop, Timex Watches, Titan and Trent were some of the gainers. Pantaloon Retail closed with marginal gains for the day.

Stock-specific action

Sulzer India rose 20 per cent after the company announced its plan to consider acquiring the remaining equity shares through an offer to subsequently delist from all the stock exchanges in India.

Micro Technologies gained 10 per cent after it got an approval from the Chief Controller of Explosives, Ministry of Commerce and Industry for its security products to be used in petroleum road tankers.

Ceat rose 5 per cent for the day after ICICI Bank, Bahrain sanctioned external commercial borrowings worth Rs 45.69 crore to fund its expansion and modernisation plans.

Eskay Knit gained 4.50 per cent after it announced its intention to go for an Rs 350-crore expansion to raise spinning, knitting and processing capacities.

More Stories on : Stock Markets | Commentary | Sensor

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Wheat MSP to be fixed at Rs 700 per quintal

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line