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Wednesday, Oct 20, 2004

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Late-hour buying props up Sensex

Krishnan Thiagarajan

THE market rallied towards the end of the day's trading, after trading in a narrow range earlier in the day, to settle at 5738.11 points, a gain of 58.28 points or 1.03 per cent. In the course of this rally, the markets also tossed the two-day losing streak aside to record fresh gains.

The combination of a strong second quarter performance announced so far with indications of easing crude oil prices pepped up market sentiments later during the day. The Sensex opened for the day at 5691.47 points, touched a high of 5751.60 points and a low of 5686.97 points.

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Among the BSE sectoral indices, the ones, which outperformed the Sensex , were BSE-Oil and Gas, up by 1.74 per cent; BSE-PSU: 1.47 per cent; BSE Auto: 1.51 per cent and BSE Metal: 1.20 per cent. The indices that lagged behind the Sensex were BSE Bankex, BSE Capital Goods, BSE -IT and BSE Healthcare.

The S&P CNX Nifty also appreciated by 22.40 points (or 1.25 per cent) to close at 1808.40 points. The Nifty Junior and Midcap - 200 also gained 0.87 per cent and 0.51 per cent respectively. Among the Nifty heavyweights, the major gainers during the day were ABB, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Shipping Corporation, Tata Power and Bharat Petroleum. The prominent losers were IPCL, Sun Pharma, Tata Chemicals and Punjab National Bank. Among the Nifty stocks, the key gainers were Kochi Refineries, Corporation Bank, MICO, IDBI and Bongaigaon Refinery. The losers were Ingersoll Rand, Syndicate Bank, Bank of Baroda, CMC and Punjab Tractors.

Outside the heavyweights, the prominent gainers were Lloyd Steel, Southern Iron and Steel, Sonata Software, Helios & Matheson, Indian Seamless Steel and Kalyani Steel. The other gainers were Crisil, Tata Coffee, Ipca Labs, Mascon Global, Veejay Lakshmi, IVRCL Infrastructure and Mahindra Ugine.

The Southern Iron and Steel Company appreciated by Rs 2.20 (or 14.71 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 17.15. The trading volumes in the stock soared from 42 lakh shares on Monday's trading to 1.19 crore shares during the day.

The uptrend in the stock has to be seen in view of the fact that the lending institutions and banks headed by ICICI Bank have made a Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) scheme. This CDR scheme paves the way for changes of management and transfer of three crore equity shares held by LMW to Jindal South West Group.

The Sonata Software stock gained Rs 1.96 (or 12.9 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 17.14. The uptrend in the stock has to be viewed in the context of it setting up a subsidiary at Frankfurt, Germany to cater to the EU markets. The trading volumes increased from one lakh shares on Monday to 12.13 lakh shares during the day.

The Indian Seamless Steel was the other major gainer, with the stock appreciating by Rs 1.25 to close at Rs 13.77. The trading volumes in the stock jumped from 1.14 lakh shares on Monday to 1.53 lakh shares during the day. The rise has to be seen in the light of the board meeting to be held on Thursday to consider the share exchange ratio for the scheme of amalgamation between Indian Seamless Steel and Indian Seamless Metal Tubes.

The Helios and Matheson stock gained Rs 15.45 (or 10 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 169.95. The trading volumes in the stock also rose from 45,005 shares on Monday to 1.14 lakh shares during the day. The prominent losers were Ingersoll Rand, Cranes Software, NDTV, VIP Industries and Vindhya Telelinks.

The Ingersoll Rand stock was among the losers with the stock losing Rs 11.25 (or 4.6 per cent) to close at Rs 231.85. Compared to 37,207 shares traded on Monday, the trading volumes in the stock rose to 47,361 shares during the day.

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