• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

SHARES of leading automobile majors — Tata Engineering and Hero Honda — were lapped by a number of institutional players on Monday.

Analysts were upbeat on these counters on expectations of good sales figures for February. Tata Engineering's Indica car sales figures are expected to be higher than the previous month.

Similarly, Hero Honda is expected to continue its good performance in the motorcycle segment. Tata Engineering shares ended 1.79 per cent higher at Rs 144.45 on the BSE and Hero Honda was up 5.72 per cent at Rs 366.30.

FIIs bullish on HLL

THE post-Budget enthusiasm on Hindustan Lever counter continued. Following the various benefits for the multinational in the Union Budget, FIIs turned bullish on HLL.

Lowering of corporate tax from 48 per cent to 40 per cent and cut in excise duty on tea would benefit the FMCG major. In addition, the various cosmetics made by the company would also gain from the excise duty cut. On the back of these incentives, FIIs believe that the company will fare well in the next fiscal.

On Monday, HLL closed four per cent higher at Rs 262.50 with volumes of 16.12 lakh shares. Similarly, on the NSE, it ended 3.23 per cent higher at Rs 256.30 with volumes of 23.50 lakh shares.

UTI active in old economy counters

The country's largest mutual fund turned active in the market on Friday. The fund managers of UTI are now taking advantage from the volatility in the stock markets.

It was learnt that the fund exited from a number of old economy stocks on Thursday, just before the Budget announcements. However, UTI turned bullish in the same stocks on Friday.

UTI was understood to have made purchases in stocks such as HLL, BHEL, SBI, ITC among others. In addition, select leading PSU stocks were also purchased by the fund. This is was one of the key factors for the market closing higher.

Virendra Verma

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Move to give more powers to SEBI hailed

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line