Capital goods stocks rally in volatile market

The market recovered most of the day’s losses towards the close of today’s session, after shedding 97 points in early trades from the day's high of 14522. Tracking weak global indices the Sensex opened marginally above its previous close, but the mood remained bearish and the market slipped on profit booking in index pivotals, banking and information technology (IT) stocks. The market once again witnessed selling pressure and the Sensex touched the day's low of 14425 by the afternoon amid a choppy session. However, the Sensex recovered, shrugging off the weakness in the early trades on substantial buying towards the close and ended the session at 14488, up 20 points. The Nifty gained by seven points to close at 4259.

The breadth of the market was positive, with the gainers outpacing the losers in a ratio of 1.40:1 on the BSE. Of the 2,645 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,501 stocks advanced, 1,072 stocks declined and 72 stocks ended unchanged. Barring a few most of the sectoral indices gave up their early gains and ended weak. The BSE IT index declined by 0.94% followed by the BSE Auto index (down 0.81%) and the BSE HC index (down 0.79%). While the BSE CG index rallied sharply and gained 1.13%.

Select counters logged steady gains. L&T rose 2.77% at Rs2,166, Reliance Communication added 1.83% at Rs523, HDFC gained 1.31% at Rs1,904 and Bharti Airtel moved up by 1.25% at Rs833. However, several index heavyweights slipped into the red and ended with losses. Cipla declined by 1.76% at Rs206, Bajaj Auto dropped 1.69% at Rs2,138, Satyam Computer slumped 1.53% at Rs455, HLL shed 1.46% at Rs189, Grasim lost 1.36% at Rs2,461, TCS declined by 1.27% at Rs1,126, Maruti Udyog slipped by 1.14% at Rs753 and Tata Motors was down 1.07% at Rs677.

Tech stocks came under sustained selling pressure. Patni Computer tumbled by 3.41% at Rs494, Infotech Enterprises dropped 2.84% at Rs377, Logix Microsystems slumped 2.75% at Rs260 and Allsec Technologies shed 2.73% at Rs237.

However the majority of the capital goods stocks logged significant gains. Voltamap Transformers flared up 11.88% at Rs841, Esab India advanced by 8.79% at Rs460, Honda Siel Power added 6.22% at Rs191, Indo Tech Transformers gained 6.05% at Rs417 and Indo Asian Fusegear was up 6% at Rs141.

Over 1.39 crore IKF Technology shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Bampsl Securities (89.78 lakh shares), Reliance Petro (70.90 lakh shares), Hindalco (70.30 lakh shares) and Reliance Natural Resources (50.96 lakh shares).

Value-wise, Indiabulls Real Estate clocked a turnover of Rs137 crore on the BSE followed by Hindalco (Rs119 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs94 crore), Educomp (Rs89 crore) and ICRA (Rs76 crore).