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Ranbaxy, Ray Ban in the limelight

Anand Ram

THURSDAY saw mixed fortunes on the bourses. The BSE Sensitive Index opened lower today at 3284.32 points over Wednesday's close of 3294.12 points. The index moved in a narrow band and touched an intra-day high of 3296.98 points and dipped to its low of 3 270.27 points in the day. It finished the day at a slight drop at 3287.56 points, logging less than a 0.2 per cent slump in the process.

Volumes too, were identical to Wednesday's trading session at 9.36 crore shares. This indicates that traders were unable to significantly control the market one way or the other. The Issues Advanced to Issues Declined ratio too languished at 469 (volumes at 4,95,05,316) to 794 (volumes at 3,56,80,185), the losers outweighing the gainers. The New Highs to New Lows, a pulse of the depth of the rally was, however, dominant at 23 to 16. Ranbaxy, one of India's top drug makers, had a good day on the bourses with its shares notching a new 54-week high.

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News that the German pharma giant Bayer AG will reduce royalties payable to Ranbaxy for the once-a-day form of anti-anthrax drug Cipro, did not deter optimism in the counter as the company had negotiated a near-assured stream of revenue. Shares of the co mpany shot up into positive territory from a lower opening at Rs 734 over Wednesday's close of Rs 735.45 and peaked at Rs 757.70 before closing a little shy of this mark at Rs 752.35. It gained about 2.3 per cent in the process.

Shares of RayBan Sun Optics India rose a little over 13 per cent on expectations that the market regulator SEBI may ask Italian Luxottica SpA to make an open offer to acquire an additional 20 per cent stake in the former. The company witnessed a huge vol ume of over 9 lakh shares in Thursday's trading. The counter closed the day at Rs 62.15.Infosys was the focus of some attention again as shares of the company rose almost 2 per cent on news that UTI may convert the company's shares into ADRs on account o f the 55 per cent premium they enjoy over domestically listed shares. It closed the day at Rs 3895.95.

Several companies fared better or worse based on the movement of their latest quarter results from previous periods. Munjal Auto, an auto component maker, saw its shares rise as high 8 per cent before closing the day at Rs 38.75. This flowed from the com pany's rise of its bottomline to Rs 2.37 crore — almost three times the value from the corresponding period of the previous year. Shares of Bihar Caustic, a caustic soda maker rose over 7 per cent after it reported a net profit of Rs 7.88 crores fo r the six months up to September. It closed the day at Rs 15.95.Chemplast Sanmar was another company that saw its shares rise after its net profits tripled in the September quarter to Rs 5.74 crores. Share prices moved up 7.8 per cent to close at Rs 19.9 5.

However, state-run Bharat Earth Movers saw its shares go south as the market reacted negatively to the company's lower net profit of 11.38 crore in the latest quarter. Its shares closed down marginally at Rs 17.25, over Wednesday's close of Rs 17.95. Ind ia's top auto parts maker, Motor Industries Company (MICO) shares zoomed over 18 per cent on news that the company's board will meet on 6 December to consider a buyback plan.

The company's shares rose through the day to close at Rs 2440.Centurion Bank rose a little over 6.5 per cent from Wednesday's close of Rs 9, propelled by news that the company was looking for a strategic partner to sell 26 per cent of its stake. It close d the day at Rs 9.65.