Metal and auto stocks rally

The benchmark Sensex began the trading session with a negative gap of 53 points but staged a smart recovery on buying in select heavyweights and added 60 points to its previous close. The upmove was followed by a strong bout of selling that dragged the index to an intra-day low of 14158. The news that the Bank of Japan has raised the interest rates by 0.25% to 0.50% also affected the market sentiment and triggered a fall in the Sensex. The market recouped the lost ground in the afternoon and rallied sharply adding around 150 points from the day’s low. However, profit booking towards the close saw the Sensex shed 65 points and end the session at 14188. The Nifty declined by 11 points and closed at 4096.

The market breadth was weak. Of the 2,647 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,512 stocks declined, 1,080 stocks advanced and 55 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE IT index shed 1.72% at 5439 while the BSE Teck index declined 0.91% at 3851. The BSE Metal index was the major gainer and was up 0.96% at 8950.

Select heavyweights declined sharply on substantial selling pressure. Ranbaxy tanked 3.29% at Rs383, Satyam Computers dropped 3.16% at Rs462, Infosys fell 2.25% at Rs2,313, HLL shed 2.08% at Rs196, BHEL lost 1.89% at Rs2,317, HDFC Bank declined 1.33% at Rs1,015 and Reliance Communications dipped 1.24% at Rs447. Grasim, TCS, ITC, L&T, Reliance Industries, ACC, Bajaj Auto and ONGC shed around 1% each. Among the select gainers Hero Honda advanced 3.27% at Rs740, Tata Steel added 2.49% at Rs455, Bharti Airtel gained 1.88% at Rs806, Hindalco was up 1.42% at Rs150 and HDFC gained 1.19% at Rs1,673.

Select metal, auto and auto ancillary stocks attracted considerable buying support. Shree Precoated Steels surged 3.54% at Rs462, Jindal Stainless gained 3.06% at Rs125 and Maharashtra Seamless added 1.24% at Rs511. Among the auto ancillary stocks Kirloskar Oil gained 2.22% at Rs262, Sunderam Fasteners added 3.27% at Rs74 and Exide Industries was up 2.82% at Rs47. Escorts, Mahindra & Mahindra and MICO were up around 1% each.

Over 33.09 lakh SAIL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IDBI (23.43 lakh shares), HLL (22.98 lakh shares), IDFC (22.39 lakh shares) and Hindalco (21.76 lakh shares).

Value-wise Suzlon registered a turnover of Rs92 crore on the BSE followed by L&T (Rs77 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs64 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs60 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs50 crore).