Nasdaq Ride Props Sensex Spurt
Led by strong closing of Indian stocks on Nasdaq and continuous foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows ahead of the Union budget, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex ended yesterday with a gain of 109.65 points at 5,835.15, while S&P CNX Nifty closed the day at 1,742.10, a gain of 31 points. Pharmaceutical stocks were the major gainers as most of them touched the eight per cent upper end
circuit filter.
Intra-day movements
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The Sensex opened 85 points higher at 5,810.24 against its previous close of 5,725.50. On renewed buying, the Index touched an intra-day high of 5,877.04. The index finally ended the day with a gain of 109.65 points to close at 5,835.15.
The other broad indices like the BSE-100 and the BSE-200 also ended the day with substantial gains of 130.19 and 26.57 points to close at 3,649.37 and 783.09, respectively. The BSE-500 also showed a gain of 78.96 points to close at 2,343.88 points.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) opened at 1,710.05 and touched an intra-day high of 1,753.10 points. The bourse ended the day with a gain of 1.81 per cent or 31 points at 1,742.10 against its previous close of 1,711.10 points.
The S&P CNX 500 and the S&P CNX Defty also ended the day with a gain of 3.65 and 1.84 per cent to close at 1,633.22 and 1,384.50, respectively, against its previous close of 1,575.75 and 1,359.55 points.
Advances & declines ratio
Of the 139 stocks traded on BSE, the advances outnumbered the declines. There were 96 gainers and only 41 declines in the `A' group. In the B1 and the B2 category, there were 522 and 721 gainers as compared with 359 and 490 losers, respectively, the previous year. On the NSE, of the 2,483 stocks traded, there were 1,339 gainers and 890 losers. On the NSE-50 and NSE-Midcap there were 33 and 40 gainers as compared with 16 and 10 lossers, respectively, the previous year. The aggregate volume on the BSE was lower at Rs 4,107.41 crore as compared with Rs 5,512.71 crore on NSE.
Spotlight
Pharmaceutical stocks were in the limelight backed on news that all bulk drugs manufacturers who import drugs may come under the Drug Price Control Order. Stocks such as Cipla, Rhone-Poulenc, E Merck, Sun Pharma, German Remedies, Parke Davis, Pfizer and Dr Reddy's ended the day with substantial gains.
According to marketmen, Hindustan Lever is expected to inform the BSE its decision to consider annual results shortly. The meeting may also include a stock-split proposal in the ratio of 1:2.
Satyam Compute ended the day by exhausting the eight per cent upper end limit on both the exchanges. The placement of its American depositary receipts was done at $80 and was oversubscribed by more than 15 times. Its market capitalisation now stands at $7 billion.
Zee Telefilms, Himachal Futuristic, Global Telesystem, Mahindra and Mahindra and Infosys received poor response from market operators. Wide scale distribution of the stocks from the operators to the investors was said to be the main motive behind the game plan.