Volatile Sensex Plummets 0.7%

Ivaylo
13 Feb, 2007
New York City

The market opened lower and soon tumbled soon below to a low of 13,958 in early deals. The market recovered at noon on intense buying in large-caps. Trading was though, highly volatile and the market fell again to rebound just before close with a 100 loss. Bajaj Auto, ONGC and Bharti Airtel led the gainers, while Hindalco and Reliance Comm led the decline. The government is considering the option of reducing the excise duty in gasoline. World Bank confident India will tame inflation.

[R]7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex ends 100 points lower on inflation concerns.[/R]
The Sensex on BSE finished 99.72 points, or 0.70%, lower at 14,090.98. The session was extremely volatile as the market traded within a range of 400 points. The market-breadth was negative, as out of 2,605 stocks traded, 1,484 declined, 1,056 advanced and 68 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex only nine advanced, while the rest 21 declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,875 crore, higher than Rs 3,266 crore on Monday, while on NSE, the turnover was Rs 9,995.7 crore, also higher than Rs 8,908.45 crore on Monday.

Economic news

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora stated on Tuesday that the government is considering a cut in excise duty in gasoline to curb the rising inflation. Deora aslo announced he was for a one rupee per liter cut in crude oil, which will have a great effect on the prices of fuel transportation, leaving the possibility of a possible decline in retail prices of auto fuels through reduced duties. He, however, ruled out any reduction in gasoline and diesel prices till the international prices came down to 50 dollars per barrel.

The World Bank on Monday showed its confidence that high inflation would be put under contrlo in India and the economy would grow at higher rate than witnessed in the recent past.

Vodafone on Tuesday said its brand new acquisition, Hutch-Essar, would soon become the number one or two mobile player in India.

Trading highlights

Akruti Nirman was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 218 crore followed by Reliance Communications and Global Broadcast.

Advancers

Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel and ONGC were leading the gainers in the large-caps. Bajaj Auto gained 3.5% to Rs 3,046, Bharti Airtel was up 2.3% to Rs 745.65. Bharti Airtel signed an infrastructure sharing agreement with Vodafone, which will allow both operators to share nearly 70,000 mobile towers across the country. ONGC rose 2.5% to Rs 887.90. ONGC is about to strike the first asset swap deal with Italy’s ENI on Wednesday. ONGC had also initiated talks with Braziian Petrobras for offering each other a stake in their respective oil & gas blocks. Reliance Industries gained 1.1% to Rs 1,372 and helped the barometer index to recover in late trading. Ranbaxy advanced 1.8% to Rs 617.70, as it launched a generic form of Lipitor in Denmark trying to overturn Pfizer Inc''s exclusive rights on the cholesterol drug.

Decliners

Hindalco led the decliners, down 4% to Rs 143, continuing the sharp drop on Monday as the market was concerned that the company will not take advanctage of the benefits from the $5.9 billion Novelis deal. Engineering & construction large-cap L&T lost 3% to Rs 1,609. Tata Steel gave up 2.5% to Rs 432.55. Infosys shed 1.7% to Rs 2,310 in volatile trade and Reliance Communications slipped over 3% to Rs 441.