The Hindu Business Line : Cement, auto sectors sizzle; oil stocks slip

It started off with a bang, but finally ended the day with a whimper. Just when the strong opening appeared to suggest that the losses on Tuesday would be recouped, at least partially, weakness as trading progressed resulted in the Sensex and the Nifty posting marginal gains. The former ended at 13616 with a gain of almost 15 points; the Nifty settled at 3928, with an almost seven-point gain.

There was an element of sizzle in both the mid- and small-cap space. In sector-specific moves, stocks from the cement and the auto space were gainers, even as oil stocks had a bad outing.

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The Sensex opened strong and in early trading was up by over 100 points compared with its close on Tuesday. From that level, it started to slip gradually and, at one point, even slipped into the red, before perking up at close. Though gains on the frontline indices were marginal, strong price movement across other market-cap categories saw advances outpace declines by a ratio of 2:1.

Index action

On the Sensex, ITC led from the front, as the stock staged a smart move on the back of an announcement by its Chairman that it intends to set up four hotels in Bangalore and another in Chennai. The other top gainers within the Sensex were all part of the cement pack, with ACC, Grasim and Gujarat Ambuja posting solid gains. With the outlook being positive and the pricing environment expected to rule firm, fortunes of the sector are on an uptrend. Sun Pharma was a key gainer on the Nifty. Prominent losers on the Sensex included Bharti, ICICI Bank, Infosys and Cipla.

Sector spotlight

The news of a cut in the prices of petrol and diesel may have been music to the ears of millions of vehicle owners, but not so for stocks in the sector. The price cut is expected to lead to an increase in losses at state-run refiners; predictably, HPCL, BPCL and IOC took it on the chin, with ONGC not being left too far behind.

Almost on cue, stocks in the automobile sector rose, on hopes that lower prices would translate into an increased demand for vehicles. Principal movers were Maruti, Bajaj Auto and Hero Honda. Gains in TVS Motors were marginal, even as Tata Motors slid by a fraction.

Stock-specific move

Praj Industries moved up smartly by about 4 per cent after it announced that it had secured an order for a bio-ethanol plant to be set up at Belgium.

Other gainers and losers

There were quite a few sharp gainers on the mid- and small-cap indices. From the former category, stocks such as Shriram Transport, Nagarjuna Construction, Madras Cement, Karnataka Bank, Indraprastha Gas and Gujarat NRE Coke were in the limelight.

Smart movers among small caps included Action Construction, Amar Remedies, Escorts, Donear, Fortis Financial Services and Micro Technologies.

Prominent losers were Divi's Labs, Financial Technologies, Ansal Properties, Pantaloon, UTI Bank and BHEL.