Bulls in 7th heaven
Now I'm high; running wild among all the stars above
Sometimes it's hard to believe you remember me
The bulls seem to be unstoppable, even at these levels. The key indices are hitting all-time highs almost every day. It is difficult to remember, that they were in complete mess just six months ago. Somehow, they managed to survive the carnage of May and now are running wild, not showing any sign of fears backed by good support from FIIs. The key indices raced ahead for the seventh week in a row, driven by buying in Power, IT, Infrastructure, Construction and Auto stocks. Capital Goods and Construction stocks were buoyed by pick up in infrastructure and construction activity and safe passage of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The party continued on the bourses with the NSE Nifty adding 2.5% or 98 points to close at 3950 and the BSE Sensex rising 2% or 274 points to 13703. NTPC, Bharti Airtel, REL, Satyam and TCS were the major gainers in the Sensex. Despite closing at a high, the markets were choppy.
Siemens had a roller coaster ride. The scrip managed to touch a high of Rs1407 on Thursday after bagging the largest ever order worth Rs40bn from Qatar. However, on Friday the scrip fell sharply following reports that six members of its parent company were arrested in Germany in connection with an investigation into a fraud. The company announced its Q4 results. Its net profit climbed by 31% to Rs1.37bn while the revenues at Rs15.63bn were up 56%. It will pay Rs3.8 per share dividend. Finally, the scrip lost over 1% to close at Rs1177.Metal stocks regained some of their lost shine after being on the receiving end over last few weeks. SAIL advanced 6.3% to Rs90, JSW Steel rose 5.2% to Rs332. Tata Steel gained 1.4% to Rs483 and Jindal Steel was up 13% to Rs120. Hindalco added 1.7% to close at Rs177. Tata Steel was in the news after Brazil's CSN unveiled a counter-bid for Corus. The scrip was among the major gainers on Friday. Tata Steel said that newspaper reports about the company's board raising the offer for the UK steelmaker are speculative.
Capital Goods stocks were in momentum. ABB advanced 4.8% to Rs3577, L&T rose 2.3% to Rs1386. Punj Lloyd jumped 8.3% to Rs960 and BHEL climbed 4.2% to Rs2528. Some bargain hunting was seen in auto stocks. Two-wheeler major Hero Honda rose 6.1% to Rs736, Bajaj Auto advanced 2.7% to Rs2633. Maruti gained 2.5% to Rs912 and Tata Motors was up 1.8% to Rs825.IT stocks outperformed the indices. Financial Technology led the gains, adding over 15% to close at Rs2139, i-flex rose 9%. Oracle postponed its plan to begin buying shares of i-flex by almost one month to Dec. 4 and also said it will pay an additional Rs11.35 for each share, boosting the stock up to close at Rs1647. Among the frontline companies, Wipro advanced 7.4% to Rs590, Satyam was up 6.5% to Rs461. TCS added 5.1% to Rs1148 and Infosys rose 2.2% to Rs2234.
Among the power stocks, NTPC led the gains, rising nearly 8% to end the week at Rs150. Reports that the company may be exempted by the Government from paying import duties on overseas purchases of power equipment boosted the stock. Also, action was seen across power stocks after the US Senate approved the Bush administration's plan to sell civilian nuclear technology and fuel to India. CESC rose 6% to Rs346, Suzlon Energy advanced 6.8% to Rs1474. Reliance Energy gained 5.6% to Rs543 and Tata Power added 3.5% to Rs576.
Donear Industries, manufacturer of textile products was a major gainer. The scrip soared 51% to Rs129 after Citigroup picked up 3.5 lakh shares at Rs90.2 and Merrill Lynch purchased 40 lakh shares at Rs90.1 on Nov. 22 on the BSE. Among the other mid-cap stocks, Century Textile jumped 7.2% to Rs635, Cummins rose 1.8% to Rs278 and Moser Baer climbed 9.6% to Rs277. Other notable gainers were Patni and Titan Industries.