The Hindu Business Line : Results drive the sentiment

The markets ended firm on a penultimate day of F&O expiry with the Sensex gaining 69.2 points to 14,110.46. Short covering and cues from the Asian markets helped the index to open with a gain. Better results from couple of companies added the positive sentiment to the markets.

The BSE mid and small-cap index too closed in the green. However, the breadth of the markets skewed towards declines with 1,329 declining and 1,296 shares advancing. The broader market Nifty added 23 points to 4,089.90.

Buzzing Stocks

The recently listed media stock Pyramid Saimira, which came out with public offering at Rs 100, hogged the limelight and surged 16 per cent to close at Rs 291.4 with increased volumes.

Click here for table

Another prominent stock was Sesa Goa which buzzed around 10.5 per cent to Rs 1,816.

IT mid-cap stocks KPIT Cummins Infosystems, Aptech, HCL Infosystems and Areva T&D added values to the previous close.

DS Kulkarni found support from market participants gaining Rs 5.2 to close at Rs 355.8.

Sector Focus

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Metal gained the most. Several of the stocks added value to the previous close. SAIL led the sector gaining7.5 per cent to close at Rs 104.4. Other prominent gainers such as JSW Steel, Tata Steel and Hindalco closed in green.

Capital goods stocks lend the support to market with Bharat Electronics gaining Rs 81.50 to Rs 1,385.10. Other gainers were Jyoti Structure, Praj Industries and Crompton Greaves.

Banking stocks which were let down on Tuesday by SBI, had breather in Wednesday's trading. Bank of Baroda surged 4.6 per cent to Rs 246. IOB, which came out better result, gained along with Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. The few that bucked the trend to close in red were Federal Bank, Centurion Bank of Punjab and Punjab National Bank.

Sugar stocks, which were treated harshly by the market players for quite sometime, had a mixed bag on Wednesday with Bajaj Hindustan, Balrampur Chini, Dhampur Sugar, Dwarikesh Sugar and Shree Renuka Sugars gaining by 1-2 per cent.

The markets, which reacted excessively to the scrapping of custom duty, had some respite for cements stocks with Gujarat Ambuja Cements, Deccan Cements, JK Cements and Mysore Cements closing in green.

Stock Specific Action

Larsen & Toubro has announced that the company has bagged three orders amounting to Rs 355 crore from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for the second phase of the Delhi Metro project. These orders will be executed by ECC, the company's Construction Division. Markets reacted positively to the news and the stock gained Rs 43.7 to Rs 1,576.8.

Accel Frontline has announced that the company is acquiring the banking solutions divisions of Telesis Global solutions, a Chennai-based software company. The acquired business is expected to contribute profitable revenues of Rs 20 crore in FY 08 and Rs 6 crore during FY 07. However, the stock fails to react positively for the news. It shed 2 per cent to Rs 94.9.

Gainers and Losers

Sanghvi Movers, KEI Industries, India Bulls, IDFC, ICFI and Sterlite Industries were some of the significant gainers at the NSE. CCL, CMC, Nocil, Manugraph India, India Infoline and Nissan Copper were the among the prominent losers.