• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Kolkata, March 10

The market’s preference for select core sector stocks was evident as it propped up cement and steel heavyweights on Monday.

According to analysts, be it for value buying or short covering, choice was strictly in relation to the price-earnings and market capitalisation.

According to Mr Gul Teckchandani, an independent equity strategist, after a strong correction, screaming “buys” are galore in terms of future earnings.

“The natural choice among them obviously would first be the relatively inexpensive stocks,” he said.

According to Mr Arun Kejriwal of KRIS, shorts had been created in select stocks; so buying or short covering came in first in the select stocks.

According to Mr Ajay Jaiswal of Angel Broking, the Budget proposals’ net positives are undeniably going to bolster construction and enhance cement sales.

ACC and Tata Steel were expected to remain on the top gainer’s list because of the increase in the local and global demand.

“Steel stocks particularly were quoting discounted prices at a time when global steel prices have been going up, creating obvious possibility for upward revaluation of the counters,” he added.

Aluminium stocks, on the contrary, did not fall much in the recent weeks; hence Nalco and Hindalco’s closing prices did not see much movement as they had outperformed the benchmark index in recent weeks, and were hence considered relatively expensive.

According to analysts, L&T could not enjoy the immediate attention of the market and declined by 8.69 per cent for two reasons — it still remained expensive in terms of the forward P/E and it reported loss in commodity derivatives.

L&T said there could be a loss in commodity hedging of around Rs 200 crore. The actual number will get crystalised on finalisation of accounts.

However, the company maintains its guidance on order booking, sales and operating margins for the year, with an emphasis on improvement in operating margins.

More Stories on : Stocks

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Corporate developments

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line