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Selling emerges at higher levels; Sensex gains 44 points

MUMBAI - Key pivotals gained in a range bound market on Thursday, helping benchmark indices finishing with marginal gains after swinging wildly. The market breadth was just about positive. Turnover on the BSE remained dull.

The 30-share BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) opened 42 points lower at 15,032, and soon touched a low of 14,993. The benchmark, thereafter, rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 15,280 - up 287 points from the day's low - amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. The Sensex eventually pared gains and settled with a small gain of 44 points at 15,117, still above the 15,000 mark. The NSE Nifty moved up six points to end at 4,524. Nifty August futures were at 4530.75, a premium of 6.9 points over spot closing. The BSE recorded a total turnover of Rs56.91 billion from Rs72.03 billion on Wednesday.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,785 stocks traded, 1,406 moved up, 1,284 declined and 95 were unchanged. Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 19 advanced while the rest slipped. Sterlite soared 4.4 per cent to Rs614. Tata Motors surged over 4 per cent to Rs444.

HDFC rallied 3.4 per cent to Rs2,477, and HDFC Bank added 3 per cent to Rs1,254. Grasim, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti gained 2.5 per cent each at Rs2,089, Rs576 and Rs669, respectively. Satyam moved up 2.3 per cent to Rs417. DLF and NTPC advanced 1.8 per cent each to Rs555 and Rs183, respectively. Infosys, Reliance Infrastructure and Jaiprakash Associates were up over 1 per cent each at Rs1,721, Rs1,024 and Rs187, respectively. On the losers list, BHEL dropped nearly 3 per cent to Rs1,775.

Bharti Airtel shed 2.3 per cent at Rs850. Reliance Communications and Ranbaxy slipped 1.7 per cent each to Rs439 and Rs504, respectively. Hindustan Unilever declined 1.5 per cent to Rs242. Wipro, Tata Power and Reliance were down over 1 per cent each at Rs449, Rs1,050 and Rs2,271, respectively.

Corporate news scenario: HDFC vaulted 3.36 per cent to Rs2476.40 on reports the company is in talks with GE Money to buy the latter's Indian home loan business. Ranbaxy Labs eased 1.28 per cent to Rs506. The government gave its approval to Daiichi Sankyo's proposed acquisition of shares in the company. It was the top loser from Sensex pack. Tata Steel fell 0.54 per cent to Rs642.15 on reports top steel producers have decided not to raise steel prices even as the three month moratorium with the government on price freeze ends on Thursday.

Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs3.43 billion followed by Reliance Natural Resources (Rs2.96 billion), Reliance Inds (Rs2.36 billion), SEL Manufacturing (Rs2.28 billion) and ONGC (Rs1.38 billion). Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 29.2 million shares followed by Ispat Industries (14.1 million), Tata Teleservices (11.9 million), Kashyap Technologies (8.83 million) and Chambal Fertilisers (8.6 million shares).

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.45 per cent to 5,881.60 and the BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.32 per cent to 7,166.99. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. Sectoral indices on BSE displayed mixed trend. The BSE auto index (up 1.21 per cent at 3967.03), BSE IT index (up 0.80 per cent at 3954.87), BSE Realty index (up 0.69 per cent at 5580.88), Bankex (up 0.66 per cent at 7283.15), BSE FMCG index (up 0.53 per cent at 2191.05), BSE Oil & Gas index (down 0.34 per cent at 10153.07), BSE Consumer Durables (up 2.86 per cent to 3,977.97), outperformed the Sensex.

Auto shares advanced for the third straight day and dominated Sensex gainers. Tata Motors surged 4.28 per cent to Rs445 on 284,000 shares. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. Maruti Suzuki India (up 2.33 per cent to Rs668) and Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.14 per cent to Rs574.05) also logged gains from auto pack.

Frontline banking shares were firm ahead of inflation data. HDFC Bank (up 3.25 per cent to Rs1256.25), State Bank of India (up 0.10 per cent to Rs1525), and ICICI Bank (up 0.74 per cent to Rs712) gained.

Cement shares continued to harden despite recent reports that they could find it difficult to raise prices when the moratorium on price freeze ends on August 14. Ambuja Cements (up 1.93 per cent to Rs90), Grasim (up 1.52 per cent to Rs2069.60), and ACC (up 0.09 per cent to Rs638.20), edged higher from the cement pack.

Real estate stocks advanced on fresh buying. DLF (up 2.28 per cent to Rs557), Parsvnath Developers (up 3.78 per cent to Rs129.20), Omaxe (up 3.51 per cent to Rs138.60), and Unitech (up 1.27 per cent to Rs179.40) logged gains from the realty space.

IT pivotals were mixed. Wipro (down 1.63 per cent to Rs446.20), and TCS (down 1.56 per cent to Rs845.05) slipped. Satyam advanced 2.23 per cent to Rs416.50. As per recent reports, the company is pursuing 15-20 deals of over $50 million each and is eyeing buyouts in the Asia Pacific, US, and European continents. Infosys gained 1.29 per cent to Rs1720.20.

Frontline telecom shares slipped. Bharti Airtel lost 1.46 per cent to Rs857. The company on Wednesday, said it would launch Apple Inc's third-generation iPhone in India on August 22.

Reliance Communications (RCom) was down 1.71 per cent to Rs438.65. According to recent reports, the company is all set to float a $500-million tender for GSM 3G networks. At present, RCom is predominantly a CDMA-based operator which is now looking at 3G services only in the GSM space.

Among prominent side counters, SEL Manufacturing saw heightened activity on high volumes. From the day's low of Rs530, the stock galloped to strike a day's high of Rs627.80. The stock settled with gain of 6.55 per cent to Rs609.70 on high volumes of 3.86 million shares. Shiv Vani Oil & Gas Exploration Services jumped 5.16 per cent to Rs576 after the company said secured a contract worth Rs16.1 billion from ONGC to deploy eight onshore deep drilling rigs.

Elecon Engineering soared 9.76 per cent to Rs117.55 after the company said Emtici Engineering, a promoter, purchased 107,000 equity shares on July 16 from open market. Ansal Properties & Infrastructure spurted 15.85 per cent to Rs105.60 after nearly 1 million shares or 0.86 per cent of the company's equity, valued at Rs113.6 million, changed hands in a block deal on BSE at Rs92 each.