The Hindu Business Line : Negative trend continues in bourses

NEGATIVE sentiment prevailed in the market as the benchmark BSE Sensex ended the last trading day of the week in the negative territory. The 30-stock index fell for the third day in a row by 107.08 points (1.85 per cent).

The Sensex opened firm at 5841.21 points, about 38 points higher than the Thursday's closing. However, it steadily declined during the course of the day's trading and closed at 5695.67 points. The index registered an intra-day high of 5854.29 points and a low of 5685.64 points in the process registering an intra-day swing of about 169 points.

On the NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty fell by 33.85 points (1.84 per cent) to 1809.75 points.

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On the BSE, of the total 2,101 stocks that were traded, 479 appreciated, 1,525 declined and the rest remained unchanged. On the Sensex, only four stocks advanced while the rest declined in value.

Index heavyweights had a mixed day. The stock of Reliance Industries and Infosys Technologies declined. On the other hand, Hindustan Lever and ICICI Bank gained ground.

The stock of ICICI Bank rose by 2.8 per cent to Rs 295.25 after registering a strong earnings growth in the recently concluded quarter. The bank recorded a net profit of Rs 440 crore, a 33 per cent increase from the corresponding period of the previous year. Hero Honda and MTNL were the other two gainers of the index.

Some of the key losers of the index include BSES (3.2 per cent), BHEL (7.6 per cent), ONGC (3.4 per cent), Tata Power (4.5 per cent), Satyam Computer (3.1 per cent), Grasim Industries (3.3 per cent), Hindalco (5.4 per cent), Larsen & Toubro (3.8 per cent), Tata Steel (5.9 per cent) and State Bank of India (4.5 per cent).

The stock of SBI fell despite posting 17 per cent growth to its net profit in the last quarter.

The stock of Paper Products rose by 12.5 per cent to Rs 196.35. The company has proposed a one-time dividend of Rs 10 per share in addition to the normal dividend of Rs 5 per share. It has also slated two capital expenditure plans, at a cost of Rs 45 crore, for 2004.

Companies that registered huge trading volumes on Friday include SAIL, IFCI, Tata Motors, Maruti Udyog, GAIL, ACC, GTL, Polaris Labs, Reliance Capital, Essar Shipping, Zee Telefilms, Mahindra & Mahindra, Canara Bank and Bharti Tele Ventures.