The Hindu Business Line : Index biggies ONGC, Reliance lead recovery

The markets are becoming as unpredictable as the weather. The benchmark indices started off deep in the negative territory, leaving investors to wonder if the recovery in the markets last week was short-lived after all. The Sensex fell close to 200 points in the first hour of the trading session. From the day's low of 13416, it made a quick recovery, buoyed by index heavyweights ONGC and Reliance. In the last hour of the trading session, the bellwether index rose more than a 100 points above its previous close to end the day at 13731.09. The Nifty, too, followed a similar pattern and ended the day one per cent higher.

The market breadth was rather weak with only about half the stocks on the BSE advancing. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks traded weak. About 60 per cent of the day's recovery could be explained by the gains recorded by index heavyweights Reliance and ONGC. The stock of Reliance gained more than 3 per cent after its partner Niko Resources announced that oil reserves have been discovered in its D6 field in the KG basin. ONGC rose smartly by 4.7 per cent on reports of a huge gas find in the KG basin.

Sector themes

Expectedly, the BSE Oil and Gas Index was the strongest gainer on the back of gains in Reliance and ONGC. GAIL, IOC, BPCL and Aban Offshore were the other gainers.

Auto stocks were also in the limelight. The stocks of Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Hero Honda, MRF and Maruti Udyog were prominent gainers.

Select pharma stocks such as Divi's Labs, GSK Pharma, Glenmark Pharma, Lupin and Pfizer also attracted healthy interest.

Buzzing stocks

Stocks that registered strong gains include Educomp Solutions, Sonata Software, Crew BOS, Flex Industries, Aarvee Denims, Polaris Software, UltraTech Cement and J&K Bank. The stocks of RS Software, Nitin Spinners, Vivimed Labs, Geojit Financial, Glenmark Pharma and Four Soft to name a few, gained on strong volumes.

The stock of LT Overseas made its debut on the bourses on Monday. The stock listed at a 7 per cent premium but closed at Rs 55 marginally below the offer price

Stock-specific action

Zee Telefilms re-listed on Monday as a new entity Zee Entertainment, having de-merged its news, cable and distribution businesses. The stock closed at Rs 272. Its previous closing was Rs 342.

IVRCL Infrastructure raised Rs 550 crore through the QIP route by selling shares at Rs 370 per share, a discount to the current market price. The initial reaction saw the stock decline by 5 per cent in the initial market hours. However, the stock ended the day in the positive territory at Rs 403.55.

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Ranbaxy gained 4.3 per cent to close at Rs 391.15. The company will receive funding from the Government at low interest rates to conduct research.

Tata Motors rose 3.6 per cent to Rs 888.8 after it announced its 70:30 joint venture with Thailand-based Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant to make pick-up trucks in Thailand.

Tata Power has won the bid to build a 4000-MW power project in Western India. The stock gained Rs 33 to close at Rs 591.

Recently-listed Lanco Infratech has won a bid to build a 4000-MW power project in Madhya Pradesh. The stock gained Rs 16.6 to close at Rs 261.8.