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B. Krishnakumar

THE weak trend in the Hindustan Lever stock played a key role in affecting market movement during Thursday. The Sensex closed at 3420.94, down by 0.88 points in comparison to the previous day's close. The index never seemed like gathering any sort of upward momentum during the day. It was confined to a very narrow trading range throughout Thursday's trading session.

While the Hindustan Lever stock registered a drop of Rs 2.95, other key index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, Infosys Technologies and ITC managed to edge into the positive zone. Infosys, for instance, registered a nominal gain of Rs 4.70 at the end of the day's trading.

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Another Sensex constituent — BSES — was, however, an exception to the overall flat trend witnessed during the day. The scrip shot up by 4.67 per cent to close at Rs 233. The rise in value was accompanied by a sharp spurt in trading volumes as well. Close to 82,597 shares were traded during the day as opposed to 3,009 shares recorded the previous day.

After passing through a relatively subdued trading phase over the last few weeks, cement stocks attracted market interest on Thursday. Quite a few cement producers such as ACC, Grasim Industries, Larsen & Toubro and Gujarat Ambuja Cement closed on a firm note. The share price of Gujarat Ambuja Cement, for instance, logged a rise of Rs 2.65 to close at Rs 204.30. Trading volumes rose to 66,279 shares from 22,749 shares recorded the previous day.

After registering a sharp rise in the last few days, GlaxoSmithkline stock witnessed some profit-booking. The scrip declined by Rs 9.25 to Rs 425.50 while trading volumes dropped to 1.77 lakh shares from 2.12 lakh shares.

For the second day in succession, NIIT managed to log sharp gains. The share price went up by 10 per cent to close at Rs 339.65. Trading volumes dropped marginally to 17.41 lakh shares from 19.01 lakh shares recorded on Wednesday. The drop in trading volumes is explained by the fact that the scrip was locked at the upper end of the daily circuit filter.

Led by Tata Steel, a clutch of steel stocks managed to settle at higher levels at the end of the day's trading. The share price of Tata Steel closed at Rs 110.3, up 5.3 per cent over the previous day's close of Rs 104.75. Trading volumes jumped to 13.34 lakh shares from 2.42 lakh shares recorded the previous day.

Jindal Strips and Kalyani Steel were other prominent gainers from the steel sector. The share price of both the companies shot up by 20 per cent. Jindal Strips went up from Rs 51 to Rs 61.20 while trading volumes vaulted to 49,823 shares from 2,453 shares.

Similar to Glaxo, the share price of Mastek, Rolta and Digital GlobalSoft were pegged to lower levels owing to profit- booking. These stocks have seen a sharp run-up in price in the recent weeks. The share price of Digital dropped Rs 17.65 to Rs 682.05 while trading volumes declined to 8.04 lakh shares from 10.36 lakh shares.

Refinery stocks such as HPCL and BPCL were confined to the losers' list while ONGC saw its share price settle at higher levels. The share price of HPCL declined by Rs 3.80 to close at Rs 273. Trading volumes spurted to 10.19 lakh shares from 6.41 lakh shares.

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