The Hindu Business Line : Markets end week on positive note

Investors are learning to live with terrorism it appears, as it was business as usual across markets. The markets ended the week on a positive note, gaining for the fourth straight trading session. The day had its share of volatility, with the benchmark Sensex swinging 172 points before it settled at 11,192, marginally higher than the previous close. Hero Honda and Reliance were its biggest gainers. Two stocks advanced for every three traded on the BSE. FIIs have been buyers all through the week and pumped in a net amount of Rs 210 crore on Friday.

The day, however, belonged to mid-cap and small-cap stocks, which appear to be making a comeback. The BSE SML Cap Index appreciated by close to 2 per cent.

Buzzing stocks

Second rung tech stocks were in the limelight on Friday. The stocks of Hexaware Techmologies, D-Link India, Ramco Systems, CMC, Visual Soft and Geodesic Information Systems were prominent gainers.

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Tea stocks continued their good run on the back of strong growth in exports. The stock of Goodricke Group, Jayshree Tea, McLeod Russell and Williamson Magor were among the major gainers.

Prominent mid-cap and small-cap stocks that witnessed significant interest include Jagsonpal Pharma, Today's Writing Products, Bal Pharma, Murudeshwar Ceramics, BOC and DS Kulkarni Developers.

There was a dramatic jump in trading volumes in the stocks of Welspun India, Ind-Swift Laboratories, Prime Focus, Blue Star, HMT and Sakuma Exports.

Sector focus

Sectoral indices ended in the positive territory barring FMCG and banking. The BSE Oil and Gas Index registered the strongest gain of 2.3 per cent, led by buying Reliance, Reliance Natural Resources (up 3 per cent each), Aban Loyd chiles (up 5.7 per cent) and Essar Oil.

Select banking stocks did find favour, with the stocks of Federal Bank, Karnataka Bank, IOB and Kotak Mahindra Bank making smart gains. ICICI Bank, Union Bank and Punjab National Bank were prominent losers. Vijaya Bank dropped to its 52-week low of Rs 45.

FMCG stocks traded weak. The stocks of Godrej Consumer Products and Nirma were the only notable gainers.

After the strong rally in recent trading sessions, sugar stocks took a breather. The stock of Balrampur Chini, Shree Renuka Sugars and Bannari Amman were notable losers. Lower rung stocks such as Sakthi Sugars, Triveni Engineering, Oudh Sugars, Dhampur Sugar and KCP Sugars also lost value.

Stock-specific action

The stock of Thomas Cook gained 10 per cent. The company is to purchase the in-bound business of Thomas Cook Thailand for 2.5 million.

Punj Lloyd has bagged a $70 million construction project in the Yemen LNG project. The stock gained Rs 10 to close at Rs 699.05.

Other gainers/losers

Other gainers include jewellery stocks Gitanjali Gems and Rajesh Exports, Financial Technologies, Abbott India, Dredging Corporation, Engineers India, Bharat Earth Movers and TNPL.

Stocks that figured in the losers list include Aegis Logistics, Visaka Industries, Hinduja TMT, Flex Industries, Shree Cement, Allcargo Global Logistics to name a few.