The Hindu Business Line : Benchmarks fall amid volatile trading

THE markets continued to be in the correction mode, falling for the third day in a row. It was however, a day of volatile trading. The indices, at first, staged a recovery after Monday's dramatic fall. It, however, ultimately yielded to selling pressure.

The BSE Sensex declined by 10.6 points or 0.14 per cent to end below the 7600-mark at 7595.6 points. The Nifty ended the day at 2318.70 points, down 0.25 per cent from the previous day's closing.

Click here for table

The overall sentiment in the market appears to have been split down to the middle. About 51 per cent of the stocks traded on the BSE declined, while 46 per cent advanced. The Sensex began the trading session on a positive note at 7617.5 points. After a small dip in the first hour of trading, the index picked up pace and reached a high of 7686.8 points.

Post noon however, a wave of selling pressure took over, driving the index into the negative territory. The benchmark index touched a low of 7559.8 points before it recovered to its closing level, recording an intra-day swing of 126 points.

Interestingly, even though mid-cap stocks came under greater selling pressure on Tuesday, there continued to be some buying activity in small-cap stocks. The BSE SMLCAP index, which comprises stocks with a market capitalisation ranging between Rs 20 crore and Rs 1,400 crore, gained 0.40 per cent, amid the losses recorded by other indices.

Large-cap stocks that gained on Tuesday's trading include ICICI Bank, Gujarat Ambuja, Grasim, Wipro and L&T. The prominent losers were ITC, Reliance, Satyam, Cipla and Infosys.

In terms of sector preferences, the capital goods sector remained in favour. Stocks such as ABB, Siemens, Carborundum, Greaves Cotton and HEG recorded strong gains.

The stock of Praj Industries extended Monday's gains of five per cent and ended the day at Rs 947. The stock of Bharat Earth Movers was another strong gainer. The stock put on nine per cent or Rs 58.40 to close at Rs 714, after it announced that it expects orders to double by March. The company is also expected to come out with a stake sale soon.

The sugar sector was also in the limelight, as the industry gets set to enter another year of firm sugar prices. Most of the action was, however, witnessed in the mid- and small-cap segment. The stocks of Rajshree Sugars, Ponni Sugar Erode (both touched their 52-week highs on Tuesday), KCP Sugar and Bannari Amman were the prominent gainers.

The pharmaceutical sector bore the brunt of a selling pressure. Stocks that took a beating include Pfizer, AstraZeneca Pharma, GlasxoSmithKline Pharma, Cipla and Sun Pharmaceuticals, to name a few.

Weakness was also witnessed in the auto, and oil and gas sectors as crude prices hovered about the $64-per-barrel mark. The stocks of Maruti Udyog and Tata Motors dropped by 2 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively. The stock of ONGC notched a modest gain of 0.35 per cent to close at Rs 955.4. The stocks of BPCL, GAIL, MRPL and Kochi Refineries were notable losers.

The stock of Vasishti Detergents gained 9 per cent to close at Rs 16.35 after Hindustan Lever announced that it proposes to amalgamate the former with the company. Shareholders of Vasishti would be offered one share of the FMCG major for every 10 shares held.

The stock of KEC International gained Rs 5 to close at Rs 223.40. The company has received an order worth Rs 2.14 billion to set up distribution infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh.

Other stocks that gained include Gujarat Fluorochem, Sintex, CCL Products, Gateway Distriparks and Crew B.O.S. Stocks that saw a huge jump in volumes include CCL Products, Patni Computers, Maharashtra Seamless, KEC International and Television Eighteen.

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

Stories in this Section
LKP Merchant shines on turnaround performance

Volatile movement

BSE moves two more indexes to free-float

Infotrek Syscom up on new initiatives

Outlook may turn positive for Dr Reddy's, Hero Honda

Gems and jewellery sector favourite with FIIs: study

Benchmarks fall amid volatile trading