Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004 |
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Stock Markets Markets - Commentary Columns - Sensor Cement, steel stocks prop up indices Sowmya Sundar
AFTER a weak start on Monday, the markets recouped most of the losses on Tuesday.. Commodity stocks in the cement, steel and oil sectors kept the market mood upbeat. A cut in the steel prices announced by domestic manufacturers is expected to provide some relief on inflation front. The 30-stock Sensex gained 33.70 points to close at 5067.39 points. The 50-stock Nifty gained 13.4 points to close at 1591.6 points. The CNX Midcap 200 outperformed the broad market by a huge margin. Stocks in the banking sector were more or less stable in a rather bullish trading session. Among the bank stocks Allahabad Bank and Corporation Bank gained close to 3 per cent. The stock of Allahabad Bank was marked down sharply in the previous trading session. The stocks of quite a few Government companies, however, attracted buying interest. Some of them are HMT, FACT, SAIL, Neyveli Lignite, Hindustan Organic Chemicals and Bharat Earth Movers. HMT rose over 5 per cent and FACT gained close to 9 per cent. Apart from sector-wise plays, select mid cap stocks witnessed heightened action. Dull trading activity and lack of triggers over the past few months have brought mid cap stocks to the forefront. In search of relatively attractive valuations, the action has shifted from frontline stocks to the mid and small caps. The market has been identifying strong growth stories among the smaller companies and according higher valuations. Some of the mid caps that were in the limelight today were Macmillan India, Navneet Publications, Goetze India, Essel Propack and Geometric Software. Among the top gainers include stocks such as Vindhya Tele, Astra IDL, Unitech, Today's, Medi Caps, Mangalam Timber and Beck India. Trading volumes rose substantially in these stocks. Despite a cut in steel prices announced by major steel producers following the cut announced by Tata Steel, steel stocks continued to move northward. Steel stocks were marked down the day before when Tata Steel announced a cut in prices. Refinery stocks such as IPCL, Kochi Refinery and MRPL too were on a high. Cement stocks such as Grasim, ACC, Gujarat Ambuja and Prism Cement were few stocks that appeared in the most actively traded list. Stocks of Tata Groups computer businesses rose on expectations that the Tata Group might merge all it's computer businesses into one single company. The stock of Tata Elxsi rose to its two year high on such expectations. The Tata group's has four companies in the computer business - Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Elxsi, Tata Infotech and CMC. The reports were, however, not confirmed by the company. Ultratech Cemco, the company that emerged out of the demerger of L&T's cement division and which was taken over by Grasim, got listed on the bourses on Tuesday. The stock listed at an attractive price of Rs 300 per share. Analyst has estimated the listing price to be in the range of Rs 250- 275. After an enthusiastic debut, the stock lost quite a bit to settle at Rs 260. The stock is still trading at an attractive premium to the expected listing price. The stock of L&T rose over 2 per cent as L&T's heavy engineering division received repeat orders from China. According to the company, it has received orders worth Rs 462 crore from China. L&T received its third successive contract worth Rs 187 crore for supply of critical coal gasification equipment apart form other orders. The stock of Nagarjuna Constructions rose as it has secured fresh orders worth Rs 168 crore for drinking water supply and sewerage projects. Among the mid caps too there were quite a few losers. Some of them are Kalpataru Power, SKF Bearing, Petron Engineering, Kajaria Ceramics, Sheshasayee Paper, Gujarat NRE Coke, Shyam Tele, IFCI, Vijaya Bank, Apollo Tyres, Bank of Baroda, Ashok Leyland and GE Shipping.
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