Friday May 3, 03:30 PM
Pivotal led recovery... |
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By Equitymaster.com
After opening on a positive note, markets slipped into the red following selling pressure in software stocks. But buying in few second rung tech companies and the Reliance (RELI.BO, news) group companies lifted the markets towards the end. Select MNC pharma majors and PSU stocks closed lower on profit booking. There was significant level of activity in domestic pharma and banking stocks.
The BSE Sensex closed at 3,385 (up 14 points) and the NSE Nifty closed at 1,098 (up 5 points). The rupee was trading at Rs 48.98 per US dollar.
ACC has reported a 30% rise in despatches for April 2002 (2%). This news comes at a time when the industry is being plagued by overcapacity and depressed realisations. Though some cement majors like Grasim were down in the morning, following ACC's numbers, there was recovery in most of the companies.
Except for Punjab National Bank and SBI, activity in public sector banking stocks has remained subdued. A number of banking majors including Bank of India (BOI.BO, news) are planning to cut deposit rates in an effort to safeguard margins. Amongst private sector banks, UTI Bank (UTBK.BO, news) , IndusInd (INBK.BO, news) and Vysya Bank (VYSA.BO, news) closed higher.
PSI Datasystems has reported a net loss of Rs 130 m for the full year ended March 31, 2002 (down 5%). The stock has been on the rise over the last few weeks in expectations of improved performance of the company. Indian Rayon (IRYN.BO, news) , the parent company, is currently trading close to its 52-week high levels (up 3%).
Kale Consultants, Mphasis BFL and Ramco Systems were the key gainers amongst second rung software scrips. Kale Consultants seems to have risen on news of bagging a BPO contract from Canadian North, an airline company. Off late, these stocks have been in the limelight on expectations of improved performance in the coming quarters. But one has to take a cautious view on smaller companies, notably tech firms and investment decisions have to be taken based on past track records. If one goes by the track record of these companies in the last two years, the management seems to have failed to deliver on many fronts.
Commodity majors, after moving up yesterday, also fell in line with the broader trend. Rayban Sun Optics was one of the top performers on the BSE. The stock was up 11%. ICICI (ICIC.BO, news) and ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO, news) also faired well.
Sensitivity Analayzer
Markets saw a weaker trend following selling pressure in index heavyweights like Hindalco (HALC.BO, news) and HCL (HCLL.BO, news) Tech. These three stocks dragged Sensex by 3 points. PSU majors were also in the negative territory with MTNL (MTNL.BO, news) and HPCL closing sharply lower. HPCL and MTNL together shaved off 5 points. However, Reliance and Reliance Petro rebounded today consequently adding 7 points to the Sensex.
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