Thursday April 19, 03:30 PM
Subdued close... |
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By Equitymaster.com
Markets recouped significant ground during the final hour of trade and managed to end marginally below yesterday's closing levels. The advance to decline ratio ended mixed with half of the stocks on the benchmark Nifty ending in the red. However, in the broader markets, advances outnumbered declines in the ratio of 1.3:1 on the NSE. Amongst the sectors, buying was witnessed in select banking, pharma and telecom stocks, while the selling pressure was seen in energy, engineering, power and software stocks.
The BSE Sensex ended at 13,643 (down 30 points) while the NSE Nifty ended at 3,998 (down 14 points). The rupee was trading at 42.13 to the dollar.
On the back of weak global cues and concerns over the slowing Chinese economy, markets opened in the red today. The benchmark indices, however, did recover some ground during the subsequent hours of trade. With selling pressure stepping back during the afternoon session, markets pared some of the earlier gains. Nonetheless, the recovery during the final hour of trade mended most of the damages done during the day. Volatility was noticeably higher during the day's trade. Asian markets ended the day's proceedings on a weak note. The European markets have also opened weak.
Biocon has announced strong results for the fourth quarter and year ended March 2007. Biocon's topline clocked an impressive 25% YoY growth during the year chiefly led by its biopharmaceutical and contract research businesses. While operating margins have improved during the fourth quarter, the same have come under pressure for FY07. Bottomline growth (up 15% YoY) for the year has been relatively slower due to the rise in depreciation charges and interest costs. The stock (down 3%), along with its peers Dr. Reddy (REDY.BO, news) (down 1%)and Wockhardt (down 2%), ended weak during today's trading session.
According to a leading business daily, Reliance (RELI.BO, news) Communication, the country's largest CDMA based technology player is planning to invest Rs 150 bn for the set up additional 15,000 towers across the nation. The cost of setting up towers varies depending on the site and terrain. However, in general, a land-based tower could cost up to Rs 1 cr. The company is already in talks with China's Huawei Technologies for the sourcing of telecom infrastructure. The company has set itself an ambitious target of putting these towers in place over the next three months. If it in doing so, it will be the fastest-ever roll out in the country. Telecom stocks ended firm with Bharti Airtel (up 1%) and Reliance Communication (marginally up) both in favour.
As per a leading business daily, PSU exploration and production major ONGC, is on the lookout to acquire an ultra-deepwater rig for resumption of drilling in the KG-DW-98/2 block. The company has reported a major discovery in the block with estimated reserves of 2-14 trillion cubic feet, which was rejected by Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH). ONGC's charter contracts with Belford Dolphin - a deepwater rig capable of drilling in depths of 3,000 metres - expired in March 2007. ONGC had drilled only part of a structure in the block by then and the company has stated that unless it drills the other parts of the structure, the reserves would not be proven. Energy stocks ended weak with BPCL, Gujarat Gas and IOC all closing 1% lower. The stock of ONGC also ended weak (down 1%).
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