The Hindu Business Line : Reliance, HLL lose ground as markets cool off

ENDING a five-day rising trend, key market indices ended Wednesday on a weak note. After a strong trend in the opening session, the sentiment turned weak, pushing the indices to their intra-day lows. Though they bounced off the day's low, they failed to get back to positive territory.

The BSE Sensex opened at 6895.62, moved to a high of 6954.86 and dropped subsequently to the day's low of 6843.44. It ended the day at 6892.82, a fall of 22.27 points from Tuesday's close. The S&P CNX Nifty closed at 2160.8, down 8.15 points from its previous close.

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The weak trend in stocks such as Reliance Industries, Hindustan Lever, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Infosys played a role in pulling down the index.

The share price of Reliance Industries closed lower by Rs 3.5 at Rs 587.4.

Despite the bearish market sentiment, a few stocks from the pharma and hotel industry logged sharp gains on Wednesday. Companies such as Aurobindo Pharma, Cipla, Pfizer and Ranbaxy were top gainers from the pharma space.

The share price of Aurobindo Pharma increased by Rs 10 while trading volumes jumped 1.97 lakh shares from 47,749.

Companies such as Indian Hotels and Hotel Leelaventure were top gainers in the hotel sector.

The share price of Indian Hotels jumped by 5.6 per cent, or Rs 35.1, to Rs 662.65. Trading volumes more than doubled to 58,094 shares from 21,125.

An unusually sharp surge in trading volume was evident in stocks such as Empee Sugar, Bharti Healthcare, Cholamandalam Finance, Uttam Galva and Bata.

Along with the increase in volume, the share price of these companies registered a sharp jump as well.

In the case of Cholamandalam Finance, the share price recorded an 8.6 per cent rise to Rs 84.35. Trading volumes zipped to 5.9-lakh shares from 40,846 the previous day.

The Bajaj Tempo stock attracted market attention on reports that a European company is picking up a 14 per cent in the company. It moved up sharply by 7 per cent to Rs 319.4. From 11,407 shares on Tuesday, trading volumes rose to 42,951 shares on Wednesday.

Led by the oil refining companies, quite a few stocks ended the day on a weak note. State-owned refineries such as HPCL, BPCL, Chennai Petroleum and Indian Oil closed on a weak note.

Concerns on the rising price of crude oil in the international market appeared to have affected market sentiment towards the oil refineries.

After having recovered smartly in the last few days, the Chennai Petroleum stock had to contend with selling pressure on Wednesday. The share price declined by Rs 6.15 to Rs 222.65. Trading volumes spurted to 2.14-lakh shares from 85,827 recorded the previous day. The share price has logged a 10 per cent gain in the past six trading sessions.

Along with the stocks in the refineries business, companies such as Clutch Auto, Ashok Leyland, McDowell, Sakthi Sugar and Man Industries were other prominent losers of the day. Taking into account that the share prices of most of these companies have recorded sharp gains in the recent past, profit booking at higher levels appears to have triggered the fall.

The share price of liquor major McDowell dropped by 5.4 per cent, or Rs 10.9, to settle at Rs 187.95. Trading volumes ebbed to 11.8-lakh shares from 27.2 lakh the previous day. The share price has almost doubled from Rs 103 on January 14 to Rs 198.85 on Tuesday.

In the case of Sakthi Sugar, the share price declined by 9.4 per cent to Rs 70.25. Transaction volumes dropped to 6.5-lakh shares from 7.5 lakh previously. The stock has yielded returns in excess of 50 per cent over the last couple of weeks.

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