The Hindu Business Line : Buying at lower levels helps market end flat

Markets see-sawed on the last trading day of the week. The global cues were mixed, with most of the Asian markets ending flat. After opening strong, the Sensex slipped into the red during mid-session.

However, the markets recovered some of the lost ground in the final trading hour, thanks to buying at the lower levels by market participants, and the Sensex bounced from the intra-day low.

The markets ended in the red, with the Sensex shedding 12 points to close at 11,465.72 points.

The BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices firmed up after taking a break on Thursday, gaining 0.67 per cent and 0.68 per cent respectively. The breadth of the market reflected the mood. Advances marginally edged the declines and closed in the ratio of 1.03:1.

Buzzing Stocks

HPCL and BPCL surged by 7.3 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively on the back of news that the two companies have taken stake in Australian explorer, Oilex NL. The group won a permit to explore off the coast of North-Western Australia.

The sugar stocks, which were beaten down in the last couple of days, bounced back.

Dwarikesh Sugar added 7.4 per cent to end the day at Rs 131.5. Other gainers were Bannari Amman Sugar, Mawana Sugar and Shree Renuka Sugar.

The other prominent Sensex gainers were Ramco Systems, Kochi Refineries, IndusInd Bank, Educomp Solutions and GVK Power and Infrastructure.

Sector Focus

Among the BSE Sectoral indices, the prominent gainers were health care, consumer durables and auto. The significant losers were capital goods, metals and banking.

Healthcare stocks were the main gainers on the back of news that the Health Ministry is likely to notify fixed trade margin on generic drugs.

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Prominent gainers were Pfizer, which appreciated by Rs 59.6 to close at 800.3.

Aventis Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline Pharma all gained 4-7 per cent. However, Divi's Laboratories and Sterling Biotech bucked the trend and closed in the red.

In the auto space, Hindustan Motors surged 11.3 per cent on the back of news that the company would be selling part of its land for expansion and to reduce debts.

Bharat Forge, Punjab Tractors, Hero Honda and Maruti Udyog all closed the day in the green. The ones that ended in red were Bajaj Auto, Sundram Fasteners and MICO.

In the consumer durables space, Blue Star gained Rs 40 to close at Rs 680. Other gainers were Rajesh Exports, Titan Industries and Videocon Industries.

Losers in this space were Gitanjali Gems and Goldiam International.

The metals sector was the worst affected in a flat market. Hindustan Zinc, which announced book closure for dividend, led the losers' pack. Hindalco Industries, Jindal Saw, Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel and National Aluminum all closed in the red.

Stock-Specific

Abbott India surged 8.8 per cent to close the day at Rs 547.6 on the back of an announcement that the company is considering a buyback proposal.

Bombay Dyeing gained Rs 79.4 to end the day at Rs 726.5. The company has declared dividend of Rs 5 per equity share of Rs 10 each.

Gainers and Losers

Jet Airways, VSNL, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Tata Power, IBP, Chennai Petroleum and Nicholas Piramal were the prominent gainers in the NSE.

HCL Technologies, Suzlon Energy, MTNL, L&T and Bharti Airtel were among the main losers.