Stock Market Indices Move In A Tight Range

Stock market indices across the country moved in a narrow range during the week as poor corporate results and an imminent petroleum price hike dampened the sentiment. However, there was a sign of recovery towards the end of the week as the Finance Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Friday.

The BSE Sensex ended the week at 3769.34 points, down 32.37 points over last week's close of 3801.71. The NSE-50 Index lost 15.65 points over last week's close of 1069, to end the week at 1053.35 points.

The highlight of the week was the listing of the Bank of India scrip at the BSE and the NSE. The scrip witnessed hectic activity throughout the week and also touched the upper end of the circuit filter regularly. Other bank scrips too fared well during the week with Global Trust Bank, Oriental Bank, HDFC, Bank of Rajasthan, Bank of Punjab and Bank of Madura among the prominent gainers.

 

Refinery scrips started the week on a promising note as the markets were expecting the oil price hike to improve the bottomline of the refineries. Cochin Refineries, Madras Refineries and Bongaigaon Refineries hit the upper end of the filter circuit regularly during the week. However, all these scrips tumbled on profit taking towards the end of the week with Cochin Refineries being the biggest loser.

Automobile scrips came under heavy selling pressure with the petro hike around the corner. Bajaj Auto bore the brunt, while Mahindra and Mahindra and Telco too lost ground during the week. However, Hero Honda turned out to be an exception with the scrip touching new highs during the week.

The scrips of Century Textiles and Indian Rayon fared badly despite bonus issues by the respective companies. While Century Mill's 1:1 bonus issue was offset by its dismal corporate results, the 1:2 bonus issue of Indian Rayon fell short of market expectations.

Summing up the activity during the week, Sanjiv Choithani, chief dealer at Pashupati Advani, said: The market has discounted the impending oil price hike and the focus has now shifted to corporate results. Next week also, activity will be centred around scrips which have declared their results or will be shortly announcing the same. In short, the market will continue to witness more of speculative trading rather than investment buying till most of the results flow in.

New Delhi: Blue chip scrips remained under selling pressure on the DSE during the week under review. This was mainly because of all-round selling pressure by bull operators along with short selling. The DSE closed with heavy to moderate widespread losses. However, shares of multinationals and banking companies attracted the fancy of investors.

They said the reports of a hike in petrol prices also influenced the market as there was a general feeling that it could adversely effect the automobile industry. As a result, shares of automobile segment came under selling pressure and lost ground. Later, reports that the petro hike would not be steep, brought some relief and automobile shares recovered to partly wipe off the fresh losses. The market sentiment could be gauged from the DSE Sensitive Index which opened lower at 772.85 points and recovered to touch 778.72 before winding up at 771.92, showing a fall of 18.02 points in the process.

Calcutta: Share prices on the Calcutta Stock Exchange experienced wide fluctuations prompted by alternate bouts of buying and selling and ended the week more or less stagnant.

Neither the political nor the economic developments had any significant impact resulting in an easy trend throughout the week. Except on the last day, the downswing was arrested when the market was influenced by the news of Sonia Gandhi's joining the Congress.

Responding to the market trend, CSE-50 Index closed on the last day at 106.22, the highest level of the week but was lower when compared with the previous week's closing level of 106.78.