The Hindu Business Line : ICICI Bank, consumer goods stocks steal the show

The bulls seem to have regained their control over the stock markets, with the Sensex gaining close to 306 points during Thursday's trading session. All the BSE sectoral indices closed in the green on the back of a relentless rally. The day also saw the biggest gain for the sensitive index in more than six weeks. Nifty followed suit and gained about 2 per cent for the day. Positive cues from global markets and winding up of short positions also augured well for the bourses. Investor sentiments, in line with the market trend, were predominantly bullish with the advance-decline ratio pegged at 4:1.

Buzzing stocks

Punj Lloyd surged about 8.5 per cent after it announced that it had set up a new company offering back-office engineering activities in India. The new company will initially cater to the group's engineering requirements and gradually will also take outsourcing contracts from other companies. Century Textiles was another stock that caught the investors' attention. The stock gained 6.3 per cent after it announced that 95 per cent of its employees had opted for a voluntary retirement scheme. Among other counters that gained substantially were HMT, Bombay Dyeing, Tele Data and Tata Chemicals.

Sector focus

Thursday's session witnessed a broad-based rally across all the sectors. Consumer goods, however, were the top gainers among the BSE sectoral indices. Titan Industries, Gitanjali Gems and Rajesh Exports were among the gainers in this segment.

Click here for table

Among the large-caps, Satyam Computer, Cipla, NTPC, Hindustan Lever and Reliance Energy were some of the scrips that notched up smart gains. ICICI Bank, however, was the top gainer for the day. The stock appreciated about 4.7 per cent. The bank has increased the mortgage rates, a third time this year, by about half a percentage point. Index heavyweight ONGC closed with a gain of about 2 per cent on reports that its joint venture with Mittal group was close to signing an agreement for an oil block in Turkmenistan. Hero Honda and State Bank of India were the only two losers in the BSE-30 pack.

Ruchi Soya, Hindustan Oil Exploration, Educomp Solutions and Kalyani Steel were some of the mid-cap stocks that spurted during the day. HCL Technologies after an announcement of 1:1 bonus notched up gains of about 6.6 per cent.

Cements stocks continued to stage a good performance for the second consecutive session on the back of strong demand outlook for the cement industry. Ultra Tech Cements, ACC, Grasim and Gujarat Ambuja Cements were among some of the counters that gained during the day.

Stock-specific action

Larsen & Toubro gained 2.3 per cent after it won two orders worth $86 million (approximately Rs 387 crore) from Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company to build three ethylene oxide reactors.

Kale Consultants clocked a gain of about 6.7 per cent after SkyTeam, a global airline alliance opted for APEX, the company's industry-standard proration solution.

FCI OEN gained 2.7 per cent on announcement that it plans to sell its automotive connector business to FCI Technology Services Ltd for Rs 25.82 crore plus value of assets and inventories.