HOW MARKET FARED

Value buying likely

The markets ended in negative territory for third consecutive trading session. Following its recent trend the key indices lost ground towards the end as all round selling in scrip’s across the sectors dragged the benchmark Sensex to hit a low of 13978.05 on expiry of Feb, 2007 derivative Contracts. Heavy weights like Infosys, ACC, Tata Motors and SBI led the downfall. Bank index as the major loser and lost 2.48% and others like Auto, Consumer Durable and Pharma indexes followed suit. Finally, the BSE 30-share Sensex slipped by 167 points to close at 14021 and NSE Nifty was down 56 points to close at 4040 hitting a high of 4126.90 and a low of 4023.15.

Kotak Bank lost over 4.5% to Rs447. The company announced that they would partner with T. Rowe price group to expand overseas. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs489 and low of Rs434 and recorded volumes of over 5,00,000 shares on NSE.

JM Financial surged by over 3% to Rs1001. Morgan Stanley announced that it has terminated its venture with the company. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs1149 and low of Rs975 and recorded volumes of over 1,00,000 shares on NSE.

Banking stocks were the major losers of the day, the index lost nearly 2.5%. Heavy weights HDFC Bank slipped 3.7% to Rs978, SBI was down 2.5% to Rs1078 and ICICI Bank declined 2% to Rs950. Corp Bank, Union Bank and Bank of Baroda were the major losers among the Mid-Cap stocks.

Capital Good stocks also were on the receiving end led by fall in ABB, the scrip lost 1.8% to Rs3780, BHEL was down by 1% to Rs2292, Punj Lloyd slipped nearly by 2% to Rs891 and BEL declined 2.4% to Rs1589.

Technology stocks also lost ground towards the end. Mid-Cap stocks were the major losers. Mastek declined 3.4% to Rs347, Polaris as down 2.9% to Rs207 and Mphasis BFL dropped 2.8% to Rs284. Wipro, Infosys and Satyam Computer were the major gainers among the heavy weights.

Power stocks were a mixed bag. Reliance Energy lost 1.8% to Rs512 and Tata Power was down by 1% to Rs595. However, Suzlon added 1.8% to Rs1040.