Back Pronounced rally in small, mid-cap stocks
Radhika Kamath
IT was yet another day of bull run on the markets, which ended the day scaling a new high. While the large-cap stocks gathered momentum, the rally in the mid-cap and the small-cap stocks was more pronounced, which contributed to the overall buoyancy in the markets.
The Sensex closed with a gain of 86.6 points, while the Nifty added about 36 points at close.
The Petroleum Ministry's in-principle approval to offload the cross-holdings of oil PSUs sparked a sharp rally in the oil and energy stocks in the early hours of trade. IOC, ONGC, GAIL, HPCL, BPCL and IBP recorded smart gains.
These stocks garnered further momentum on reports that the Government may compensate the State-run refineries for revenue loss in selling auto and cooking fuels. Chennai Petroleum, MRPL, Kochi Refineries and Petronet LNG also ended with respectable gains.
The breadth of the market was largely positive, which was reflected in the advances to decline ratio. While 974 stocks advanced, 338 shed value.
Mid-cap stocks that have been fancied by investors over the past few months continued to show strong momentum. The BSE Midcap Index was up by about two per cent while the CNX Midcap gained 1.7 per cent. The index earlier touched an all-time high of 3,490.1 before closing at 3,487.3.
Stocks that notched significant gains included Deccan Chronicle, Escorts, Titan, SRF, Bajaj Hindustan, Shree Cement and Navabharat Ferro.
IT stocks that stayed weak on Monday staged a smart recovery on the back of fresh buying interest. Among the frontline IT stocks, TCS, Infosys and Satyam were the major gainers.
Among the second rung stocks, i-flex was up sharply on reports that Oracle is going to acquire Citigroup's stake in the company.
Among the others that gained significantly were MphasiS BFL, Patni Computers, HCL Technologies and Rolta India.
It was a field day for most of the stocks in the capital goods space.
Greaves Cotton, Gammon India, Dredging Corporation, HMT, ABB and Alstom witnessed widespread buying interest.
BHEL was up 2.1 per cent after the company won an order worth Rs 2,120 crore from an Andhra Pradesh utility.
However, L&T, BEML, Alfa Laval and Siemens exhibited some weakness.
Investors remained bullish on the FMCG stocks, which witnessed hectic activity across the counters. Bata, McDowell, Marico, Nestle, Tata Tea and ITC ended in the gainers' list.
HLL, which shot up on Monday after the earnings announcement, shed a portion of its gains. The stock was down by 1.6 per cent. Nirma, Tata Coffee and Jindal Photo also ended weak.
After getting rocked by bearish sentiment on Monday, most metals stocks saw a reversal in trend. Tata Steel and SAIL staged a smart comeback while GMDC, Jindal Stainless, Vesuvius, Sesa Goa and Jindal Saw recorded respectable gains.
There was active buying across the counters of pharma stocks. Matrix Lab, Cipla, Nicholas Piramal, Abbott India, Dr Reddy's and Pfizer marched ahead.
However, Merck, Ranbaxy, Novartis and Elder Pharma came in for some selling pressure.
It was a lacklustre day for banking stocks. A host of them, straddling the large-cap and mid-cap domain, such as ICICI Bank, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank and Vijaya Bank declined considerably.
SBI, UTI Bank, Allahabad Bank and Oriental Bank bucked the trend to end the day in positive territory.
Other prominent gainers on the Nifty were Aegis Logistics, Alok Industries, Arvind Mills, Berger Paints, Era Constructions, GE Shipping, IVRCL, Macmillan India, Maharashtra Seamless and Pantaloon Retail.
Those that entered the losers' list were Timex, Voltas, Apollo Tyres, Corporation Bank, Madhucon Projects and Monsanto.
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