Bse Southward; Wipro, Hll Shine

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex seems to be oscillating between the 5,700-5,850 range ahead of the Union budget. The Sensex, which had risen on Thursday by more than 110 points, fell by more than 113.50 points yesterday. The S&P CNX Nifty also ended the day with a loss of 24.30 points at 1,717.80.

With Saturday being declared holiday on account of Shivaji Jayanti, the BSE ended the day earlier at 1.30 pm to undertake badla transactions. As a result, short-term operators pulled up the NSE at the fag end of the trading session. The Sensex, backed by these factors, is expected to open at least 100-odd points higher on Monday.

 

With badla rates ranging between 22-24 per cent and FIIs emerging as net buyers to the tune of Rs 236.90 crore on Thursday, the markets on Monday are expected to open on a strong note.

Spotlight

Despite the higher closing of the Nasdaq on Thursday, domestic stocks failed to show any significant movement abroad. As a result, Infosys and ICICI ended the day with moderate losses. Satyam Computer closed the day touching the upper end of the circuit filter on reports that the company will soon be announcing a 1:2 stock-split. Wipro once again touched the upper end of the circuit filter to close at Rs 8,911.60 with more than 1,00,000 shares being bought on the BSE.

If the stock continues to appreciate in this manner, at a price band of Rs 12,000-15,000, the chairman of Wipro, Azim Premji, will soon be rated next to Microsoft chief Bill Gates, in terms of worlds 10 richest businessmen. Currently, more than 75 per cent of the company's equity (inclusive of various holding company) is held by the management.

HLL also touched the upper end of the circuit filter on reports that the company would soon be informing both the exchanges about its meeting on annual results along with a bonus issue or a stock-split.

Other market favourites like Himachal Futuristic, Global Tele-System, Zee Telefilms, Atco Technologies, Cipla and Aftek witnessed sustained buying on positive corporate developments.

Intra-day movements

The BSE-30 Sensex opened almost 55 points higher at 5,894.19 against its previous close of 5,835.15. However, selling pressure by operators and mutual funds in most cyclical and pharma stocks saw the index touching an intra-day low of 5,681.98. It gained marginally at the end of the trading session and ended the day with a loss of 113.50 points at 5,721.65.

The S&P CNX Nifty posted a loss of 1.39 per cent or 24.30 points to close at 1,717.80. The index touched an intra-day high of Rs 1,764.15 and later witnessed massive selling pressure from short-term operators.

Advances & declinces ratio

Of the 139 stocks traded in the forward group, there were 116 declines and only 22 gainers. In the B1 and the B2 category, there were 501 and 516 declines as against 355 and 570 advances the previous day. On the NSE-50 and NSE-Midcap there were 42 and 39 losers as against 8 and 10 gainers the previous day. The aggregate volumes on BSE were Rs 4,828.93 crore against Rs 5,340.65 crore on the NSE.