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Aarati Krishnan

Weak global cues and nervousness about impending earnings announcements from the bellwethers in the days ahead, contributed to yet another bearish trading session on Wednesday, with the BSE Sensex shedding 204 points while the Nifty closed lower by 61 points. In a continuation of recent trends, both the BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap indices fared better than the Sensex, but still closed in the red.

Sector themes

Oil and gas and capital goods stocks bore the brunt of the day's profit-taking. The recent weakness in crude oil prices triggered a three per cent decline in ONGC, while expectations of slowing credit growth pressured the ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank stocks. The technology majors Infosys, Satyam Computer and TCS continued to lose value ahead of results announcements commencing on Thursday.

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Telecom stocks continued to be in the limelight with the race for acquisition of Hutchinson's telecom business hotting up. The Reliance Communication stock registered a significant decline even as the company confirmed its interest in the Hutch acquisition and mooted plans to raise funds through an overseas convertible offering.

FMCG stocks managed to hold their ground reasonably well, with gains in ITC and Nestle India. Nestle India gained 4 per cent on higher volumes, after the company proposed a board meeting to consider the return of surplus funds in its reserves and share premium account to shareholders. The company has seen a steady increase in stake by the parent company - Nestle SA and has put through a series of share buybacks in the past.

Stock-specific action

News of a stake sale by the National Stock Exchange to the NYSE and a set of institutional investors appeared to spur buying in the financial technologies stock, which registered a 2.9 per cent gain through the day. The company is a key stakeholder in the Multi Commodity Exchange. IFCI, one of the stakeholders in NSE, also registered a sharp gain of 19 per cent. Deccan Chronicle Holdings was among the strong gainers, on the back of a 5 for 1 stock split proposal from the company. BHEL, ABB and Suzlon registered sharp declines in the capital goods space. Stocks of media companies such as Pritish Nandy Communications and Mukta Arts witnessed strong buying interest on the back of new listings in this space.

New listings

The stock of film production company Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision made a strong debut, opening at Rs 189 (a 18 per cent premium to offer price of Rs 160) and going on to scale a high of Rs 248 during the day, before closing lower at Rs 226 levels. The de-merged arms of the erstwhile Zee Telefilms also made their trading debut on Wednesday with Zee News closing the session at Rs 34.4 levels, while Wire and Wireless India closed at Rs 120.8; Zee Entertainment, which houses the residual business, closed at Rs 276. Among the recently listed stocks, Pyramid Saimira broke its winning streak to shed over 7 per cent in value, while Cairn India closed the day with a marginal decline.

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