Back Many index stocks breach 52-week highs
Aarati Krishnan
THE markets lost steam during the course of the day's trading on Tuesday, after getting off to a roaring start.
The BSE Sensex climbed to a high of 8,585 points during the day, before plunging to 8,525 points at close. The Nifty closed at 2,574 points.
Despite some meltdown in values, both indices closed the day with net gains. Profit booking overtook a range of mid-cap stocks as the trading day progressed. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks continued to regain momentum with the respective indices notching up higher percentage gains than the Sensex.
Index moves: Several large cap stocks saw significant moves during the day. Hindustan Lever, at Rs 182, ICICI Bank at Rs 593, Tata Motors at Rs 549 and L&T at Rs 1,449 breached new 52-week highs during the day's trading.
Banking stocks led from the front, with the BSE Bankex putting on 1.3 per cent and most of its constituents managing gains of 2-3 per cent. The market breadth was positive but did not equal the robust sentiment on Monday.
296 stocks in the BSE-500 basket gained, while 201 declined.
The Reliance Industries stock recorded an upmove. Its earnings were upgraded by a leading foreign brokerage on expectations of robust refining margins.
The ONGC stock also saw gains during the day on the same expectations.
Mid-cap movers
Bayer Crop Science (up 15 per cent), HMT (up 15 per cent), Gammon India (up 11 per cent) and Canfin Homes (up 12.5 per cent) were the major gainers for the day. Recently listed FCS Software also made significant gains, putting on 20 per cent during the day.
The stocks of Bharati Shipyard and Hindustan Construction were also among the gainers. While the former announced an overseas offering, Hindustan Construction announced that its board would meet on September 29 to approve a stock split.
Momentum resumed in Bilcare (up 10 per cent), Century Enka (up 5 per cent), Astra Microwave (up 5 per cent) and Gammon India (up 11 per cent).
Stocks that lost significant value during the day were Balrampur Chini, Asahi India and State Bank of Mysore. The last declined on the back of thin trading volumes.
Pointers to trading
* A couple of companies concluded their AGMs after the close of the day's trading. TCS confirmed its interim dividend announcements and said its shareholders and creditors would meet on October 29 to approve the merger of Tata Infotech.
* Jet Airways issued a statement on its financial performance in its AGM. Its chairman stated that the company had recorded robust financial performance in recent months, despite new competition and the cancellation of 650 flights due to the Mumbai rains.
* Cranes Software announced in its AGM that it had approved the issue of equity shares on a preferential basis to promoters and strategic investors at a price of not less than Rs 900 per share.
* Bloomberg reported Government sources as saying that kerosene and LPG subsidies would be removed in 2007.
* Hanil Era Textiles announced after trading hours that it secured a Rs 30-crore export order to be executed over the next three months.
* Stocks that recorded a significant surge in trading volumes in relation to the previous five days were United Phosphorus, Bayer Crop Science, JMC Projects, Canfin Homes, MICO, Gammon India and HMT.
* Data on purchases/sales showed that FIIs made net purchases of about Rs 199 crore during the day. Mutual fund data for the preceding day showed funds to be net buyers to the tune of Rs 133 crore.
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