Wednesday January 16, 03:30 PM
'Oldies' in the reckoning... |
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By Equitymaster.com
Markets have turned volatile off late. While software stocks were weak, old economy scrips attracted significant buying interest. Select auto and banking companies were the top movers. Markets seem to be gaining on expectations of a recovery in demand in 2002.
The BSE Sensex closed at 3,349 (down 4 points) and the NSE Nifty closed at 1,090 (down 4 points). The rupee was trading at Rs 48.29 per US dollar.
Auto stocks were once again in the limelight today. As expected, Bajaj Auto (BJAT.BO, news) has declared excellent results in 3QFY02. Its quarter earnings stood at Rs 1,082 m (up 101% YoY excluding extraordinary items). Production and sales were up 16% and 27% respectively as compared to corresponding quarter in the previous year. The scrip was down marginally.
Telco was the big mover on the bourses today (up 10%). The company is also expected to declare good third quarter results on the back of a rise in HCV and passenger car sales. In the last nine months, FIIs have hiked their stake in the company by 6.8% to 13.3% mainly due to a revival in its car sales. Ashok Leyland (ASOK.BO, news) , TVS Motors and Hero Honda (HROH.BO, news) also were up.
The other prominent movers were Indian Hotels, Tata Steel (TISC.BO, news) , Tata Chemical, Crisil (CRSL.BO, news) , Moser Baer, Saregama, Balaji Telefilms, Bharat Electronics and Kodak.
VSNL was down 35% on the BSE as the stock has gone ex-dividend. The stock is currently in the no-delivery period on the BSE. It may be recalled that VSNL board had approved a special dividend of Rs 75 per share before the divestment. The stock goes ex-dividend tomorrow on the NSE. The book closure for the dividend is on Jan'29.
Digital, Wipro (WIPRd.BO, news) and HCL (HCLL.BO, news) Technologies were the prominent gainers amongst tech stocks. But generally pharma and software stocks were weak. While ICICI, ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO, news) and SBI were up, HDFC Bank (HDBK.BO, news) was down despite a commendable third quarter performance.
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