The market witnessed high volatility for the second day in a row today as the Sensex moved between positive and negative zone. However, auto stocks outperformed the market following renewed buying interest.
The 30-share BSE Sensex settled with gain of 44.65 points, at 13,384.86. It had opened lower, and slipped to an intra-day low of 13,182.35 shortly after the commencement of trading. It kept on recovering as the day progressed and struck an intra-day high of 13,441.36. It moved 259.01 points in this range.
The S&P CNX Nifty rose 17.95 points (0.47%) to 3833.50
The market breadth was strong on BSE, as buying resumed for small-cap and mid-cap stocks. Against 1,430 shares that advanced on BSE, 1126 declined. 70 remained unchanged. The BSE Small-Cap index closed at 6,665.44, up 45 points or 0.67% while the BSE Mid-Cap index gained 38.30 points or 0.69% to 5,612.70
The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4050 crore as compared to Wednesday’s turnover of Rs 4417 crore.
Shares from auto sector were in demand on renewed buying. The BSE Auto Index rose 1.85% or 96.09 points to 5,301.32, and was the top gainer among sectoral indices. M&M (up 4.03% to Rs 848.10), Tata Motors (up 3.13% to Rs 862.10) and Bajaj Auto (up 2.22% to Rs 2565), Escorts (up 2.83% to Rs 110.70), Amtek Auto (up 4.07% to Rs 340.10), Punjab Tractors (up 1.25% to Rs 223.05) and Hero Honda (up 0.75% to Rs 736) moved higher.
Among the Sensex pack, 19 advanced while the rest declined.
Reliance Communication was the top gainer, up 3.54% to Rs 463.40, on a volume of 22.67 lakh shares. It moved in a broad range of Rs 439 – 466.
Reliance Energy gained 2.52% to Rs 527 on 2.40 lakh shares. It recovered from low of Rs 505.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) gained 1.06% to Rs 1,261.80 on a volume of 7.38 lakh shares. Recently, RIL and its partner Niko Resources, discovered oil in the hydrocarbon rich Krishna-Godavari basin. The two have discovered a column of gas condensate of 170 m and 24 m of oil-bearing hydrocarbons. RIL has 90% stake in the block and Niko 10%. It moved in a range of Rs 1243.15 – 1270.
Maruti Udyog rose 0.43% to Rs 927 after reports that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the sale of the government's residual 10.2% stake. Japanese car giant Suzuki has a majority 54.2% stake in the company. The government's stake in Maruti is valued at Rs 2,800 crore at the current market price.
Gujarat Ambuja Cements was the top loser, down 1.25% to Rs 132.55, on a volume of 3.50 lakh shares.
PSU oil exploration major ONGC lost 0.91% to Rs 851. Reports say it has struck gas in Mahanandi, which may contain 3-4 trillion cubic feet natural gas.
Banking stocks witnessed selling pressure. ICICI Bank (down 0.72% to Rs 853), State Bank of India (down 0.52% to Rs 1210), and HDFC Bank (down 0.75% to Rs 1010) edged lower.
Tech Mahindra was the most active counter on BSE with total turnover of Rs 358.36 crore followed by Indiabulls Financial Services (Rs 335.05 crore) and United Spirits (Rs 290.54 crore).
A huge block deal of 30.28 lakh shares was struck on United Spirits counter at Rs 880 per share by 11:37 IST. The counter was up 1.30% to Rs 885.20 on total volume of 32.98 lakh shares.
Great Offshore settled at Rs 727.05 on volumes of 45.65 lakh shares. Great Offshore came into existence following a restructuring of GE Shipping whereby the shipping firms’ offshore services business was transferred to a separate company.
i-flex plunged 10.91% to Rs 1749.90 on concerns that market players may offload the scrip in the open market to the extent the shares tendered in the ongoing open offer by Oracle are rejected. i-flex December 2006 futures were also trading at a discount over the cash price The discount was huge on Wednesday when the December futures had settle at Rs 1644.45 compared to its spot closing price of Rs 1964.30. As per reports, market players had build up positions in the I-flex scrip to tender them in the open offer which was at a substantial premium to the offer price. The offer opened on 4 December and it closes on 23 December.
Glenmark Pharma surged 10.63% to Rs 631 on renewed buying after the company recently announced the receipt of euro 25 million from German drug major Merck as upfront payment for a new drug research collaboration in the area of diabetes.
Moser Baer India advanced 12.58% to Rs 302 on 15.92 lakh shares after it announced foray into the entertainment industry through the Indian home video market. The company will release video content on DVD and Video CD formats using its proprietary and patented technology.
Telecom software firm Tech Mahindra jumped 20% to Rs 1,492.55, on high volume of 25.19 lakh shares. It had announced the signing of a five-year deal to provide BT with strategic sourcing services. This contract is expected to create new revenue for Tech Mahindra in excess of $1 Billion over this period. Tech Mahindra will support BT’s planned growth of managed services to business customers around the globe and continue to provide ongoing services related to BT’s internal systems, processes and re-usable platforms.
NIIT surged 20% to Rs 534.45 after it launched a five-semester long course called `Integrated ANIIT for Engineers,' (IAE) to improve the employability skills of fresh engineering graduates. This will target engineering students (mostly from non-IT streams) in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad pursuing the second and third semester of study.
Matrix Laboratories declined 4.32% to Rs 207 extending its recent fall after the open offer to acquire additional 20% stake by US-based Mylan Laboratories got over recently. It had plunged as much as 9.6% to an intra-day low of Rs 195.50 at 10:58 IST. 2.88 lakh shares changed hands in the counter on BSE. The offer was for mopping up about 3.1 crore fully paid-up and 4,700 partly paid-up shares at Rs 306 and Rs 294 respectively.
Power transmission equipment firm KEC International rose 2.18% to Rs 353.65, a day after it secured orders worth Rs 151 crore. Three of these are for setting up transmission lines in the United Arab Emirates, and one for transmission lines in Ghana, the company said in a statement.
Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals rose 2.60% to Rs 230.90, after it announced a joint venture in Saudi Arabia with Takamul Investments Holding Company (Takamul), a group company of Capital Advisory Group for manufacturing hospital disinfectant formulations, anti-cancer drug formulations and dry powder inhaler (DPI).
Sobha Developers declined 2.46% to Rs 944.95 on high volumes of 20.33 lakh shares. The stock had debuted on the bourses on Wednesday.
Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) surged 7.76% to Rs 18.75. The stock rose on high volume of 62.79 lakh shares. The scrip enters NSE’s futures & options segment from 29 December.
Praj Industries was down 0.28% to Rs 180.40. As per reports, the company is in talks to acquire majority stake in a European company.
Barclays Plc on Wednesday launched an exchange-traded note (ETN) that tracks the Indian stock market. The iPath MSCI India ETN started trading on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol INP. Barclays said it is linked to the MSCI India Total Return Index, a free float- adjusted index, which consists of the 68 largest Indian companies by market capitalization that are listed on the National Stock Exchange of India. The index is calculated by Morgan Stanley Capital International and is denominated in US dollars
The Nikkei average rose 0.22% on Thursday, edging higher above 17,000 as exporters rose on a softer yen and steel stocks such as Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. gained on hopes for a further industry shake-up. The Nikkei was up 36.79 points at 17,047.83.
Hang Seng index was down 0.09% at 19,222.84. European markets were trading on a mixed note.
FDI inflow in India touched $6.1 billion in first 7 months April-October 2006 period compared to an inflow of $2.6 billion in the same period last year. India’s exports during the 8 months April-November 2006 rose 39% to $79.59 billion.
US stocks edged lower on Wednesday in light trading as a disappointing outlook from FedEx Corp pulled down transport stocks and off set the positive influence of the latest round of proposed takeovers. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 7.45 points, or 0.06%, to end at 12,463.87, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index edged down 2.02 points, or 0.14%, to finish at 1,423.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.94 points, or 0.08%, to close at 2,427.61.
As per provisional data, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 354 crore on Wednesday (20 December). They were net buyers to the tune of Rs 270 crore in index-based futures and Rs 152 crore in individual stock futures on that day.
Crude oil climbed to a three-month high in New York after a government report showed that US inventories dropped more than expected and imports fell, signaling that OPEC is acting on its pledge to trim output. Crude oil for February delivery rose 26 cents, or 0.4%, to $63.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close for the contract nearest expiration since 18 September