The Hindu Business Line : Markets take a breather; Sensex ends on a weak note

The Sensex ended the day on a weak note, declining by 69.95 points (or 0.65 per cent) to settle at 10614.35, while Nifty closed 25.85 points (0.82 per cent) lower at 3116.15 points. The weak trend was also in line with the Asian markets.

The market breadth also remained negative, with declines outnumbering the advances by a ratio of 1.04 to one during the day's trading.

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According to provisional data, FIIs (BSE and NSE combined) continued to be net sellers during the day to the tune of Rs 151.14 crore, higher than Rs 102.19 crore logged on Monday's trade.

The turnover at both the exchanges also remained fairly low.

SECTOR FOCUS

Among the BSE Sectoral Indices, auto followed by metals were the biggest losers during the trading session.

The weakness in the auto/auto ancillary pack appears to have been triggered by the earnings announcement of Hero Honda.

While Hero Honda shed 6.1 per cent, the other losers were Tata Motors, Cummins India, Ashok Leyland, Mico and Bharat Forge have shed between two to three per cent.

The stock that bucked the overall market trend was TVS Motors, gaining 4.31 per cent.

The metals sector also took a hard knock during the day's trading, with stocks such as Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India, Hindalco, JSW Steel and Hindustan Zinc shedding between two to five per cent.

The other sectors that also ended on a weak note were technology and banking.

In the technology pack, the losers were Infosys Technologies, HCL Technologies Bharti Airtel, TCS and Zee Telefilms. However, stocks such as Satyam Computers and Wipro managed to buck the overall trend.

The sector that ended in the positive was healthcare, with stocks such as Nicholas Piramal, Matrix Labs, Glaxo SmithKline Pharma, Cipla and Dr. Reddy's Lab posting a gain of one to four per cent.

Other sectors such as capital goods and consumer durables ended in the red, but shed lesser value than the Sensex.

STOCK SPECIFIC ACTION

* Robust performance from CRISIL for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 announced on Monday has sparked a 13 per cent rise in the stock price to Rs 1588.85.

The trading volumes moved up from 1,844 shares on Monday to 3,276 shares during the day.

The revenues of Crisil have grown to Rs 35.4 crore for the latest June quarter from Rs 22.6 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The post tax earnings over the same period stood at Rs 8.07 crore, up from 3.6 crore.

* The Hero Honda stock shed Rs 46.5 (or 6.06 per cent) to close for the day at Rs 720.45.

Though Hero Honda managed to post higher revenues and post tax earnings for the June quarter as compared to the previous year, the lower operating profit margin appears to have affected market sentiment.

* Among the other major gainers of the day were BASF India, Balrampur Chini, Kesoram Industries, GHCL and Prime Focus.

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