Sensex Down 0.6%, Tata Steel Rallies

Ivaylo
23 May, 2007
New York City

The benchmark index traded in a tight range throughout the day, although it opened with a positive bias and surged initially. Selling pressure on unwinding of positions sent the Sensex lower in late session with auto, banks and tech stocks leading the decline, while the metals sector ended higher. Tata Motors, ITC and Reliance Comms led the decliners, while the best performing stocks was Tata Steel.

[R]8:30AM NY-7:30PM Sensex ends lower Wednesday on selling pressure in large-caps.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished Tuesday 90.46 points, or 0.63%, lower at 14,363.26.

The market-breadth was sharply negative with almost two decliners for every advancer. As 928 stocks advanced, 1,638 declined and only 76 stocks remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 11 advanced, 18 declined and one stock remained unchanged. The turnover on BSE was Rs 5,290 crore, compared to Rs 5,180 crore on Tuesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 10,715.85 crore, lower than Rs 11,375.26 crore on Tuesday.


Economic news

Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced today that the new Direct Tax Code Bill is to be proposed in Parliament by this December.

For the third time this month and second time in two days, the Reserve Bank of India intervened in the forex market at the end of trade to prevent the rupee from advancing above the 40.50-mark against the dollar.

Trading highlights

Reliance Capital was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 205 crore followed by Educomp Solutions and HDFC.

Advancers

Tata Steel soared 5% to Rs 659 on high volumes of 25.85 lakh shares in anticipation of firm prices. Tata Steel has received permission from government of Vietnam to work with Vietnam Steel Corp on a $3.5 billion steel complex in the southeast Asian country.

Reliance Energy surged 3.5% to Rs 570. Hindustan Lever rallied over 2% to Rs 198. BHEL advanced 1.5% at Rs 2,718, and Hero Honda added 1% to Rs 694. Housing finance large-cap HDFC gained 0.32% to Rs 1,800.25 on high total volumes of 10 lakh shares. Two block deals were traded on BSE. One block deal of seven lakh share was struck at Rs 1,818 per share, while the other of one lakh shares was executed at Rs 1,785 per share.

Decliners

Reliance Communications shed 2.5% to Rs 511, led the decliners. Bharti Airtel was also down 1.13% to Rs 849. on reports that it would also announce price cuts within the next couple of days.

Maruti shed 1.8% to Rs 815. Gujarat Ambuja, ONGC lost around 1.5% each to Rs 115, Rs 913, respectively. ITC, and Ranbaxy slipped 2.5% each to Rs 166 and Rs 390, respectively. Bajaj Auto slumped for the fifth straight day as selling pressure continued. It lost 0.8% to Rs 2,177, after staying firm throughout the day.

Index heavy Reliance Industries declined around 1% to Rs 1,758 on 6.18 lakh shares. It hit a record high of Rs 1,785 in opening trade. There are reports that Reliance Industries is in talks with rig manufacturers for the purchase of a deepwater rig whereby it can carry out operations at a depth of around 12,000 feet.

[R]8:00AM Gold, oil and grain decline on drops in prices.[/R]

An ounce of gold for June delivery lost $3.90 to settle at $659.90 on the Nymex. July silver slipped 14 cents to $12.99 an ounce on Nymex. Copper also declined, with the July contract ending down 9.8 cents to $3.3025 a pound.

The June crude oil contract, which expired Tuesday, shed $1.30 to settle at $64.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The more heavily traded July contract dipped $1.36 to close at $65.51. Nymex gasoline futures dipped 9.5 cents to close at $2.3063 a gallon.

Corn for July delivery fell 11.4 cents to settle at $3.694 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. July wheat dipped 8.4 cents to end at $4.710 a bushel, while July soybeans gave up 7.2 cents to close at $7.932 a bushel.