The Hindu Business Line : Sensex ends flat in a volatile market

It was a tug of war between the bulls and the bears, who fought hard to establish their supremacy on Tuesday's trading session. The markets, however, failed to give a verdict and ended on a flat note. Sensex after opening on a firm note meandered its way through both the positive and negative terrain to close with a paltry loss of 15 points. The broader index, nifty, chose to close with an insignificant gain of 0.05 per cent. Market sentiment, in line with the day's trade, remained neutral. The same got mirrored in the advance-decline ratio of 1:1.

The day's session was marked with volatility. Nevertheless, buying in capital goods and auto stock brought some respite to the otherwise dull market. Metal stocks, on the other hand, were laggard.

New listing

Lumax Auto Technologies listed at Rs 80 on the NSE as against an issue price of Rs 75, attracting a listing gain of about 6.7 per cent. However, the stock closed at Rs 110 with a gain of about 47 per cent.

Buzzing stocks

CMC continued to sizzle for the second day in a row. The stock appreciated 15 per cent during the day (after gaining 28 per cent on Monday), following a 69 per cent jump in net profit for December 2006 quarter. The volumes on the counter were almost 15 times its two-week average. Prism Cements, on the back of a reported 1395 per cent increase in net profits for the December 2006 quarter, surged 10 per cent. Reliance Industries, after gaining close to 4 per cent in the last three sessions, lost about 1.3 per cent on Tuesday on the back of profit booking.

SAIL, Heritage Foods, Electrotherm, UTI Bank and JP Associates were among stocks that hit their all-time highs during the day's session.

Sector focus

Expectations of a robust quarter for select capital goods stocks brought some solace to the otherwise flat market. Kirloskar Brothers, Praj Industries, L&T, Thermax and BHEL were among the stocks that moved northwards during the day. Jyoti Structures, which rose about 6 per cent, led the gainers pack. However, stocks such as BEML, Crompton Greaves, ABB and Bharat Electricals closed in the red on the back of profit booking.

Cement stocks regained strength on the back of renewed buying interest. Among the counters that registered significant gains were Saurashtra Cement, Shree Cements, Mysore Cements and India Cements.

Click here for table

Select auto stocks clocked gains during the day. M&M gained 3.6 per cent after it unveiled its decision to build a new plant worth Rs 2,500 crore. The plant will be used to manufacture vehicles for its joint venture with Navistar International Corporation. Among other scrips that gained were Tube Investments, Tata Motors and Escorts.

Bajaj Auto slipped from a high of Rs 2,860 to close with a gain of 0.3 per cent after it posted a 24 per cent rise in net profit for the December 2006 quarter.

Stock-specific action

Nestle India lost about 3 per cent after it board approved distributing Rs 86.32 crore from its share premium account and general reserve to its shareholders.

Bajaj Auto Finance gained about 3.8 per cent after it more than tripled its net profit for the quarter ended December 2006.