Market ends flat amid volatile trade

Local bourses ended the week flat after suffering high volatility throughout the week. A lot of significant events kept pulling the key indices either ways.

For the week ended 27 April 2007, the BSE Sensex was up 11.59 points, at 13,908.58, while the NSE Nifty was down marginally by 0.05 points, to 4,083.50.

The week started mildly bullish with the Sensex rising 30.92 points, to 13,928.33 on Monday. The market chose to remain cautious on the first day of the week, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s monetary policy.

On Tuesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 208.39 points to finish at 14,136.72, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s decided to keep all policy rates - the CRR, repo, reverse repo and bank rates -- unchanged. Speculative buying, as well as short-covering in the derivatives aided the surge, especially in banking shares.

On Wednesday, the benchmark Sensex gained 81.05 points to 14,217.77, as it abandoned a weak intraday trend, towards the later part of the day, led by index heavyweight, Reliance Industries. Short-covering ahead of expiry of the April contracts also happened in the later half of the day.

On Thursday, the Sensex rose marginally by 11.11 points to 14,228.88, after highly a volatile session, due to the scheduled expiry of the April 2007 derivative contracts.

But the Sensex was not able to sustain the higher levels, for the last day of the week, and hence plunged 320.30 points, to 13,908.58, as index pivotals were being offloaded, tracking weak global markets and profit-booking.

Reliance Industries (RIL) lost 3.05% to Rs 1538.20. RIL reported 14% growth in net profit in Q4 March 2007 at Rs 2853 crore compared to Rs 2520 crore in Q4 March 2006, on the back of strong refining margins. The company said refining margins for the March 2007 quarter were $13 a barrel, higher than the benchmark Asian Dubai crack margin, which averaged less than $7 in the quarter. Net sales rose 5.5% to Rs 25895 crore from Rs 24542 crore.

RIL posted a net profit of Rs 10908 crore for FY 2007, compared with a net profit of Rs 9069 crore in FY 2006. Net sales rose to Rs 105363.30 crore from Rs 81211 crore. The company's earnings per share (EPS) rose to Rs 78.3 in FY 2007 from Rs 65.10 in FY 2006.

RIL targets sales of more than $24 billion by 2011 from the retail business. RIL has set up 135 retail stores in 16 cities during FY-2007, the company said on Thursday.

Car major Maruti Udyog (MUL) rose 2.41% to Rs 795. MUL reported 24% growth in net profit in Q4 March 2007, at Rs 449 crore against Rs 361 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Grasim advanced 1.27% to Rs 2421.35. It reported 80.5% growth in net profit in Q4 March 2007 at Rs 474.49 crore (Rs 262.74 crore). Net sales surged 36.2% to Rs 2493.75 crore (Rs 1829.78 crore).

Pharma major Cipla plunged 7.64% to Rs 217.10, after it reported 34% fall in net profit in Q4 March 2007 at Rs 126 crore from Rs 191 crore, mainly due to a sharp decline in active pharmaceutical ingredient (APIs) exports and rising material costs. Net sales for the quarter were up 6.3% to Rs 938.5 crore, on the back of a 14.4% growth in domestic revenues to Rs 399.7 crore. Exports were flat at Rs 529.3 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2007, from Rs 526.6 crore in last year’s corresponding quarter. A change in the product mix also contributed to the decrease in profits.

Cipla reported a 8% increase in net profit at Rs 660.82 crore for the year ended 31 March 2007, as compared to Rs 607.64 crore in FY 2006. Net sales were up at Rs 3572.1 crore compared to Rs 2985.9 crore in the year ended 31 March 2006. The results were declared after trading hours on Thursday.

Bharti Airtel declined 2.28% to Rs 826.25, even as it posted a stronger-than-expected 98% surge in net profit for Q4 March 2007. Its consolidated net profit as per US GAAP, jumped 98% in Q4 March 2007 at Rs 1353.09 crore (Rs 682.31 crore). Revenue rose 58% to Rs 5393.18 crore from Rs 3411.33 crore. Bharti Airtel said it had added a net 53 lakh customers in Q4 March 2007. It also had an ever-net addition of 1.8 crore customers in FY 2007.

Hinduja TMT plunged to Rs 599.35, following resumption of trading in the scrip from 24 April 2007.

Data released on Friday, showed India's wholesale price index rose 6.09% in the 12 months to 14 April 2007, unchanged from the previous week, and analysts said they expect it to dip below 6% in the coming weeks. This figure matched street expectations.

Bank of Japan (BoJ) on the same day left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5% for the third meeting in a row, as expected, against a backdrop of lingering deflationary pressures.

A report from Credit Suisse pointed out that the development was largely a result of the rapid appreciation in the rupee, which strengthened to below 41 against the dollar on Wednesday. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), with a capitalisation of $944 billion, is also inching toward the magic $1 trillion mark.

The other countries in the trillion-dollar club are the US, UK, Japan, Germany, China, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Russia.

“The UK is the only economy to stop being a trillion-dollar economy for a while after attaining the status for the first time,” the report said.

Credit Suisse said that for 10 economies that crossed the $1 trillion mark in GDP, stock markets rose the year afterward in eight.