The Hindu Business Line : Sensex range-bound; oil, cement stocks shine

Sensex opened strong on Wednesday's trading. Profit booking at higher levels dragged the index into negative territory during the mid-session. However, strong buying, which emerged at lower levels, pushed the index to positive zone and Sensex ended the day at 13,033.04 by adding 71.14 points. Nifty, reflecting the same sentiment, gained 23 points and closed at 3767. Mid and small-cap indices too gained 1 and 0.80 per cent respectively. However, the breadth of the market was in the neutral and it was reflected in the advances to declines ratio. Against 1,251 stocks that closed positive, 1,255 ended the day in red.

Buzzing Stocks

AIA Engineering stock surged 20 per cent on the news that the board had approved the expansion plans of the company with an outlay of Rs 150 crore. To fund the same, the board said that the company may go for an FCCB/GDR/QIP.

Television Eighteen, that declared better results, had the support of the street and the stock hit the upper circuit by gaining 10.8 per cent to close the day at Rs 776.

Maruti Udyog, which reported a 17 per cent gain in October sales, failed to cheer the market, the stock closed marginally down. Uttam Galva Steel, that announced a price hike, gained 2 per cent. Other prominent gainers at BSE were GMR Infrastructure, Alstom Projects, Birla Corporation, Zee Telefilms, KEC International and United Breweries.

Sector Focus

Oil and gas stocks are up on the back of fall in crude prices. BPCL, HPCL gained between 1 and 2 per cent. IOC has edged higher by Rs 3.5 to Rs 516.3 after the company announced better Q2 results.

Cement stocks moved northward. On Wednesday's trading the gainers were ACC, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, Madras Cements, India Cements and Saurashtra Cement. The lone stock to buck the trend and close in red was Dalmia Cement.

Banking stocks that had a breather in Tuesday's trading had a mixed bag. The gainers were led by the public sector major State Bank of India, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Karur Vysya Bank and Federal Bank. Both the top private sector banks, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, closed weak for the second consecutive day.

McDowell was the star performer in the FMCG sector by gaining Rs 57.6 to Rs 810.6. HLL, that declared better results, gained along with Dabur and Marico Industries. Prominent losers in the segment were Tata Tea, Colgate Palmolive and Nirma.

Stock-Specific Action

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Reliance Industries stock surged 3.1 per cent after the company announced that it planning to raise $2 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) by way of syndicated loan/bonds/FCCB towards investment in projects of oil and gas exploration and production business.

Sun TV has announced that the flagship channel of the company, will be a pay channel with effect from December 2 .The rate to the cable operator for Sun TV will be Rs 12 per month per subscriber. The stock gained Rs 9.25 to Rs 1219.5.

HMT had posted a better result in comparison with the net loss for the corresponding period last year. However, the stock failed to impress the market participants, it gained 1 per cent to the previous close.

Gainers and Losers

VSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication, BHEL, Asian Paints, LIC Housing Finance and Wockhardt Pharma were the prominent gainers at NSE.

HDFC, Cipla, HCL Technologies, Satyam Computer, Gail (India) and M&M were the conspicuous losers.