Back Late-hour buying clips Sensex losses
Alagappan Arunachalam
TUESDAY'S strong bullish sentiment, which helped create history, was nowhere to be found in the early hours on Wednesday.
The broad market indices opened on a weak note and moved in the red through out the day. A rally in the afternoon hours helped the indices close with a marginal declines.
The BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty shed 0.4 per cent. A 9:11 advances-declines ratio reflected the positive sentiment at close.
The tea industry continued to attract much of the interest in the market. Metals, capital goods, sugar and banking were subject to strong negative sentiments with prominent players in the sector closing in red.
Tea garden stocks continued their winning streak to the fourth straight day. Across-the-board gains were registered in this sector. Jayshree Tea figured at the top of the heap supported by a surge in volumes; the stock closed with an 18-per cent gain. About 24 lakh shares changed on the BSE. Other such as Apeejay Tea, Assam Company, Dhunseri Tea and Goodricke registered gains of about 5 per cent.
Duncans on the NSE also registered a gain of 5 per cent. Tata Tea's gain, however, was limited to 2.6 per cent, as markets appeared factored in its FMCG business. Parry Agro, however, registered a modest gain of 0.1 per cent. Harrisons Malayalam was accorded some special treatment as rubber prices are at its peak. The stock closed with an 8-per cent gain to close at Rs 152.5.
Sideways movement in coffee prices had its effect on Tata Coffee as the stock closed with a modest gain of 0.5 percent. Bombay Burmah, which has interests in both the tea and coffee plantations, however, closed with a smart gain of 7.9 per cent.
Sentiment turned bearish on the counters of sugar stocks. After a spate of gains registered in the recent past, the stocks appeared to have been subjected to profit-booking as trading activity continued to remain intensive. Oudh Sugar, Ponni Sugars (Erode) dropped by about 5 per cent, while Balrampur Chini, Dhampur Sugar, Bannari Amman, Mawana Sugars and KM Sugar registered declines between 1 and 4 per cent. Renuka Sugars bucked the trend by gaining about 1 per cent.
A negative sentiment dominated the metals industry. Blue chip stocks in the steel sector — Sesa Goa, Tata Steel and SAIL were among the major losers. Maharashtra Seamless, Jindal Stainless and Uttam Galva registered a decline of more than one per cent. Jindal Steel was the only one to buck the trend. The bearish sentiment also crept into the stock of Hindustan Zinc. Hindalco and Madras Aluminium also registered declines.
A bearish sentiment prevailed in the cigarettes industry with three stocks registering declines. Leading them were GTC Industries, which lost about 2.2 per cent. The lone gainer was VST Industries, which registered one per cent gain. The stock has been moving sideways since the second week of December.
Bearish sentiment continued to prevail in the travel luggage space. Tuesday's recovery has been partially wiped out in the stocks of VIP Industries and Blow Plast, which closed lower by 1.7 and 3 per cent respectively. Other polymer processors such as Nilkamal and Jain Irrigation also registered declines.
A predominantly bearish sentiment prevailed in the chlor-alkali industry. Caustic soda players Gujarat Alkalies and Siel registered a more than 4-per cent decline. Chemfab Alkalis registered a smart gain of 4.1 per cent. This comes on the back of Rs 28 decline on its counter since January 25. Andhra Sugars that has interests in sugar registered a 3 per decline. Among soda ash manufacturers GHCL declined while Tata Chemicals closed with a 0.7-per cent gain.
Top gainers among the Nifty constituents included Cipla, National Aluminium, Maruti, Dabur, Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto, HCL Technologies and Infosys.
L&T, BPCL, Wipro, MTNL, Dr. Reddy's, GAIL and Zee Telefilms figured in the losers list.
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