Heavyweights, oil stocks drag down market

The market sentiment was high after the smart gains of over 200 points yesterday. The Sensex opened on a positive note with a gap of 52 points on the back of firm international markets and selective buying in cement, metal and banking stocks. The Finance Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha yesterday, with the finance minister modifying the dual excise duty structure on cement to bring in a 12% ad valorem duty in place of the specific duty of Rs600 per tonne. This generated significant buying interest in cement stocks in the early trades. As the market players started profit booking among the front-line stocks, the Sensex slipped in to the red. The market remained range-bound with a negative bias thereafter. The lower-than-expected inflation number at 5.77% for the week ended April 22 lifted the market sentiment in the afternoon, causing the Sensex to enter into positive territory again. However, the strong bout of selling in heavyweight, oil and capital goods stocks dragged the Sensex down to the day's low of 13913. The Sensex finally ended the session with a loss of 144 points at 13934. The Nifty ended the session at 4117, down 34 points.

The market breadth was weak. Of the 2,658 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,462 stocks declined, 1,101 stocks advanced and 95 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Oil & Gas index shed 1.26% at 7245, while the BSE CG index declined 1.26% at 8242. The BSE CD index was the major gainer and moved up 2.08% at 3801.

Select heavyweights declined on strong selling pressure. HDFC slipped 2.66% at Rs1,634, Reliance Industries dropped 2.50% at Rs1,583, L&T fell 2.50% at Rs1,698, Bharti Airtel shed 1.95% at Rs818, ICICI Bank lost 1.92% at Rs855, Satyam Computer declined 1.70% at Rs470, BHEL dipped 1.58% at Rs2,496 and TCS slumped by 1.23% at Rs1,274. Among the select gainers, Cipla advanced by 2.72% at Rs217, Hindalco added 1.54% at Rs148 while ACC, ONGC, Reliance Energy, Bajaj Auto, SBI, Dr Reddy's Lab and HDFC Bank gained marginally.

Select oil stocks came under selling pressure. BPCL slipped 3.43% at Rs335, IOC declined 1.43% at Rs442, Essar Oil lost 0.96% at Rs56, HPCL fell 0.73% at Rs278 and Reliance Petroleum was down 0.12% at Rs81. In the capital goods segment, Astra Micro, Areva, Jyoti Structures and Greaves Cotton were down over 2-3% each.

Select consumer goods stocks, however, attracted buying support. Videocon surged 6.03% at Rs447, LLyod Electric moved up by 2.12% at Rs154, Gitanjali Gems added 0.75% at Rs200 and Blue Star gained 0.62% at Rs227.

Over 3.94 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Nagarjuna Fertilizers (1.35 crore shares), Himachal Futuristic (1.35 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.19 crore shares) and Tata Teleservices (1.10 crore shares).

Value-wise India Bulls registered a turnover of Rs377 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs242 crore), IFCI (Rs185 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs159 crore) and India Bulls Real Estate (Rs141 crore).