Mid-caps rally in an otherwise subdued market

Weak global cues, modest earnings from Infosys and rising crude oil prices kept Indian floats lower today. IT bellwether Infosys Technologies today reported    
a net profit of Rs1,028 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, down 8.5% from Rs1,124 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2007. Tracking the same, the Sensex resumed with a negative gap of 62 points at 14948 but recovered immediately and touched the day's high of 15015. But, the party did not last. The fresh bout of selling in technology, auto and banking stocks dragged the Sensex to its day's low of 14830 by the afternoon. The market remained subdued thereafter as investors preferred to remain on the sidelines. The Sensex finally closed the session by shedding 99 points at 14911. The broad based Nifty ended the session at 4387, down 19 points.

Surprisingly, the breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,694 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,444 stocks advanced, 1,183 stocks declined and 67 stocks ended unchanged. The sectoral indices had a mixed outing. The BSE IT index slipped sharply and dropped 3.34% followed by the Teck index (down 1.99%) and the BSE Auto index (down 0.52%). However, the BSE Realty index rallied sharply and gained 3.38% followed by the BSE Metal index (up 1.48%) and the BSE CD index (up 1.30%).

Among the major losers Infosys Technologies slumped by 4.47% at Rs1,930, TCS plummeted by 3.34% at Rs1,147, Satyam Computer tumbled by 3.28% at Rs481, Wipro shed 2.02% at Rs510, Ambuja Cement crashed by 1.84% at Rs128, Tata Motors dropped 1.69% at Rs732 and Ranbaxy declined by around 1.44% at Rs357. However, Grasim surged 3.40% at Rs2,819, Tata Steel jumped 3.40% at Rs656, ACC zoomed 3.16% at Rs1,069, Reliance Energy added 2.14% at Rs626 and HUL gained 1.96% at Rs202. BHEL, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and Dr Reddy's Lab closed with modest gains.

Reality stocks, however, registered solid gains. India Bulls Real Estate was in the forefront and vaulted 7.03% at Rs501. Among the other major gainers DLF soared 3.27% at Rs590, Unitech surged 3.06% at Rs542, Sobha Developers advanced 1.98% at Rs955 and Parsvanath Developers scaled up 1.94% at Rs383.

Over 2.12 crore shares of Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI ( 1.18 crore shares), Nagarjuna Fertilizers (1.17 crore shares), Silverline Technologies (1.13 crore shares) and G V Films (96.42 lakh shares).

Value-wise Infosys Technologies registered a turnover of Rs298 crore on the BSE followed by DLF (Rs190 crore), Roman Tarmat (Rs154 crore), GMR Infrastructure (Rs148 crore) and Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs139 crore).