All eyes on Infy results
The bulls marked second straight day of losses on Friday ahead of announcement of quarterly result of Infosys. Early losses were recovered as buying in the Oil & Gas, Banking and Metal stocks lifted the markets in green. However, after hitting an intra-day high of 13971.82 the benchmark BSE Sensex ended flat losing marginally by 11 points as selling pressure in the later half of the session in the Auto, Technology and FMCG stocks dragged the key indices down. Finally, the BSE benchmark Sensex was down 11 points to close at 13860. NSE Nifty was down 5 points to close at 3983.
Tanla Solutions had a strong debut on the bourses as the scrip ended its day on upper circuit atRs379.80 on BSE compared to its IPO price of Rs265. The scrip opened at Rs379.80. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs379.80 and a low of Rs365and recorded volumes of over 32,00,000 shares on BSE.
HDFC surged 2.5% to Rs1618 as according to reports the company raised the lending rate on its loans by 50 basis points to pass on rising costs. The company raised its prime lending rate to 12.75%. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs1638 and a low of Rs1553 and recorded volumes of over 4,00,000 shares on NSE.
Mefcom Agro locked 5% upper circuit at Rs187 after they announced that Board of Directors of the Company would meet on January 12, 2007 to consider bonus issue. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs187 and a low of Rs185 and recorded volumes of over 2,00,000 shares on NSE.
Oil & Gas stocks recorded smart gains. ONGC advanced 2.4% to Rs895 and Reliance Industries was up by 0.7% to Rs1288. Refinery stocks were also on limelight as Oil dropped below $56 a barrel, the lowest in 18 months. Crude oil tumbled 8.9% in the last two days. HPCL surged over 4% to Rs297, BPCL spurred 2% to Rs352 and IOC advanced 1% to Rs476.
Cement stocks were a mixed bag, Grasim advanced 1.3% to Rs2831 and Mangalam Cement rallied over 4.5% to Rs226. However, Frontline stock ACC lost 1.6% to Rs1054 and Gujarat Ambuja slipped 3% to Rs138.
Banking stocks pared their intra-day gains on back of profit booking. The Mid-Cap stocks witnessed heavy profit booking, Bank of India declined 2.8% to Rs204, Bank of Baroda was down 1.2% to Rs241 and Syndicate Bank dropped 1% to Rs74. However, Index heavy weight ICICI Bank mopped up 2.2% to Rs910.
Select Capital Good stocks ended lower on back of selling pressure. L&T lost 1.5% to Rs1470; Punj Lloyd declined 2.1% to Rs1027. However, Siemens was up 0.2% to Rs1120 and BHEL added 0.6% to Rs2289.
Power stocks pared their intra-day gains towards the end as profit booking dragged them down. Suzlon slipped 0.5% to Rs1293, Reliance Energy lost 1% to Rs524 and Tata power was flat at Rs560.