The Hindu Business Line : Pharma, mid-cap stocks shine

AFTER moving in a relatively narrow range, the key indices made a decisive move on Wednesday. The S&P CNX Nifty as well as the BSE Sensex registered a sharp decline at the end of the day's trading. Both the indices recorded their highest drop in over a month.

After opening on a firm note, the indices were stuck in a relatively narrow range during the first half of the trading session. The sentiment weakened during the last couple of hours of the day's trading.

The BSE Sensex declined by 76.89 points or about 1.5 per cent to end at 5175.16. The S&P CNX Nifty lost 1.9 per cent to settle at 1621.6. Business volume at Rs 1,926.99 crore at the BSE was higher in comparison to Rs 1,780.46 crore recorded the previous day.

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The weakness in stocks such as Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India, ONGC and Reliance Industries was instrumental in pulling down the indices. The share price of Tata Steel turned ex-bonus on Wednesday. Adjusted for the bonus, the stock recorded a 5 per cent drop in value on Wednesday.

Including Ranbaxy Laboratories and Hindalco, only five out of the 30 stocks forming part of the index, managed to settle at higher levels. The share price of Ranbaxy increased by Rs 12.35 to Rs 977.75.

The ratio of advancing issue to declining ones at 582:1334 is indicative of the bearish mood that prevailed on Wednesday. The weak trend, however, did not prevent quite a few mid-cap companies from settling at higher levels.

Berger Paints, Carborundum Universal, Crompton Greaves and Sintex logged significant gains on Wednesday. The share price Berger Paints logged a five per cent rise to close at Rs.130.5.

From 3,760 shares, trading volumes zipped to 20,596 shares on Wednesday. A similar trend of rise in price accompanied by a surge in trading volume was apparent in Crompton Greaves and Sintex as well.

A sharp rise in price of quite a few pharmaceutical and software stocks was another striking feature of the day's trading.

In the pharma sector, Ranbaxy, Orchid Chemicals, Lupin and Divi's were prominent gainers. The share price of Orchid Chemicals shot up by 3.44 per cent to Rs 176.15. Trading volumes increased to 1.49 lakh shares from 20,245 shares recorded the previous day.

Patni Computers, Tata Infotech, Hexaware and i-flex were the major gainers from the software sector. From Rs 310.9 on Tuesday, the share price of Patni Computers rose to Rs 322.35 on Wednesday. Trading volumes more than doubled to 4.34 lakh shares from 1.77 lakh shares.

Companies from the steel and sugar industry were adequately represented in the list of major losers of the day. Led by Tata Steel, the share price of quite a few steel companies including SAIL, Essar Steel and Jindal Iron and Steel registered sharp decline on Wednesday.

The share price of Jindal Iron dropped by 6 per cent to Rs 254.15. Trading volume dropped to 2.67 lakh shares from 3.13 lakh shares.

From the sugar sector, the prominent losers include Bajaj Hindustan, Dhampur Sugar and Balrampur Chini. The share price of Bajaj Hindustan dropped by 5 per cent to Rs 65.6 and Dhampur Sugar by 5.2 per cent to Rs 44.1.

Quite a few stocks from the banking sector too found a place in losers list. State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India were key losers from the banking sector. The share price of State Bank of India dropped to Rs 447.1, representing a 2.7 per cent drop from Tuesday's close of Rs 459.55.

The share price of Lyka Labs, BPL, Varun Shipping and Man Industries dropped sharply on Wednesday following the transfer of these stocks to the trade-for-trade category from the normal rolling settlement category.

The share price of Varun Shipping dropped by 7 per cent to Rs 22.35. Trading volume jumped to 1.63 lakh shares from 41,806 shares.