Market Close: Looking for direction ahead of the results !

It was yet another day of consolidation and the markets ended flat with positive bias which opened with mild gap up tracking the positive Asian cues. Indices continued to trade with moderate gains on the back of buying seen in Metal and Capital Good sector but it was off the track on account of selling pressure seen in select stocks in FMCG, Pharma and cement. Profit-booking at higher levels saw the index pare gains and move in a narrow range. Results season has been started with few companies posting results but big Daddy Infosys, is due on Friday is most awaited to give direction. We believe nothing much is likely to change as clearly the guidance will not be bullish. Asian markets traded higher while European markets trading in green.

Sensex ended a point higher. It was supported by gains in Hindalco (+4.77%), Tata Steel (+3.42%), Bharati Airtel (+1.56%) and BHEL (+1.20%). Restricting the gains were Ranbaxy (-4.02%), Dr. Reddy?s (-2.81%), Gujarat Ambuja (-2.29%) and ACC (-1.88%).

Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd (WGSRL) has planned to bid for pipeline projects in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Indonesia. The company shall also approach oil and gas companies in the Middle East, North America and Asia. The metal pipes manufacturer is also likely to bag more orders from the US. Middle East, Qatar and Iran have the largest gas reserves in the world and are planning to develop them commercially. Even, Saudi Arabia has lined up mega projects of $45 billion to increase oil production, build petrochemicals complex and new pipelines. Welspun Gujarat will get many opportunities to encash huge profits from countries like Brazil, Indonesia, China and India, which have plans to build gas pipelines. Russia is also planning to build gas pipelines to supply China with natural gas. Welspun's SAW pipe sales have grown at a CAGR of 37% over FY03-06. In the past, Welspun has supplied pipes to oil and gas majors like British Gas, Exxon Mobil, and Shell. Welspun Gujarat ended up by 10% while its peer Jindal Stainless closed marginally up 1%.

Mastek announced third quarter results which reported net profit of Rs 23.8 cr (Rs 238 mn) in the third quarter vs Rs 21.8 cr (Rs 218 mn) in the previous quarter a growth of 9.17%. Its total income was up 2.38% to Rs 214.8 cr (Rs 2.14 bn) from Rs 209.8 cr (Rs 2.09 bn). The company's US operation has gone up by 27% QoQ. The stock closed marginally down by 1% on the general downtrend.

iGATE Global Solutions reported revenue of Rs 805.1 crore for the year ended March 2007 as against Rs 635.8 crore in the previous year. Net profit for FY07 increased to Rs 49.8 crore, a sharp spurt of 805.5% from Rs 5.50 crore in FY06. For the fourth quarter ended March 2007, the company?s revenues increased 25.50% to Rs 210.1 crore compared to Rs 167.4 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year. While net profit for Q4 FY07 surged 381% to Rs 22.6 crore from Rs 4.7 crore in Q4 FY06. However, operating revenue for the 4th quarter was adversely impacted by 2.1% due to the strengthening of the rupee against the US Dollar. But the overall Margins have not been impacted due hedging. During the recently concluded quarter, iGATE added six new clients largely for IT services. The stock ended down by 4.6% on indications that next quarter would be sluggish.

Technically Speaking: Market witnessed a Yoyo session to end in flat. Sensex is still stuck and finding it tough to move over the band of 13200-13400, which a very crucial range. Bull power will be clearly evident if this level is crossed. On the lower side, support is at 12940. Market turnover stood at Rs 3847 cr. Overall breadth was in favor of Advances as advancers were 1548 against decliners of 1027.