The Hindu Business Line : Buying interest in small cap, mid-cap stocks

Equity markets in India had a subdued start on Monday in tandem with the rest of Asia. The sharp crack in base metal prices on LME and Comex on Friday affected the mining stocks such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., which dragged the Asian equity markets lower.

But the gloom was short-lived as the prices perked up in no time to take the Sensex to yet another triple-digit gain. The Sensex ended the day up 116.09 points and the Nifty gained 0.63 per cent.

The rally was broad based with the small caps and mid cap stocks also seeing buying interest. The BSE Midcap index gained 0.84 per cent while the BSE Small cap index rose 1.20 per cent. This was reflected in the positive market breadth.

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There were 1,474 advances and 1,080 declines on the BSE.

The surge in Sensex was led by HDFC, which gained 4 per cent, Tata Motors, which moved higher by 1.9 per cent, and Bharti Airtel, which gained 3.8 per cent.

Top gainers on Monday were Ingersoll Rand, Polaris Labs, NTPC, Torrent Pharma and Orchid Chemicals.

Prominent losers in the A group were Hero Honda, Hindalco and Tata Steel. Metal stocks such as Nalco, Hindalco, Sterlite and Tata Steel were weak following global trends.

Zee Telefilms said in a notification to BSE that it had bought a 50 per cent stake in Taj TV Mauritius that owns Ten Sports Television channel. The investment is based on an enterprise value of $114 million or about Rs. 513 crores. The stock gained 3.33 per cent to close at Rs 341.65.

IVRCL infrastructure closed higher by 2.17 per cent at Rs 354.80. The stock was buoyed by the news that the company had bagged new orders of the value of Rs 343 crores in its Water & Environmental Projects Division, Power Division and Buildings Division.

The contracts include Kolkata Environment Improvement Project, contract from Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and contract from Power Grid Corporation of India for transmission line works in Bihar.

3i Infotech has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire a 51 per cent stake in Professional Access with a right to acquire the 49 per cent over a period.

Professional Access is a US-based company with offshore development centres in India specialising in e-commerce for the BFSI and retail segment. The company would pay $12 million for the 51 per cent stake.

The stock of 3i infotech gained 1.33 per cent to close at Rs 187.35.

Nagarjuna Construction Company has announced that the company has secured 2 new orders aggregating Rs 226 crore, the first one from the Andhra Pradesh Government for widening of SRBC Main Canal in Joint Venture with Maytas Infra, and the second order from the Union Government, Central Public Works Department, for construction of Jawahar Lal Bhavan in New Delhi valuing Rs 98 crore. The stock ended the day higher by Rs 1.65.