Sensex Edges Higher, L&T Rallies

Ivaylo
25 Jun, 2007
New York City

The market saw a lackluster session today, trading in and out positive territory within a narrow band of 80 points. Later in the day fresh buying interest in Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications helped the benchmark index close higher. BHEL and L&T led the capital goods sector to a record high, while auto and IT stocks continued their decline with Satyam and Bajaj Auto leading decliners. ONGC announced today its net profit for fiscal 2007 is up 8%.

[R]7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex ends slightly higher in a subdued trading session.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished 20.36 points higher, or 0.14%, at 14,487.72.

The market-breadth was fairly positive as there were three gainers for every two decliners. For 1500 stocks which advanced, 1073 declined and 73 remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 16 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,283 crore, lower than Rs 5,344 crore on Friday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 8,308 crore, also lower than Rs 9,251 crore on Friday.

Economic news

Nissan Motor Corporation is about to buy more components from China and India after the company’s profit declined for the first time after the record loss in 2000. Nissan will boost its global component purchases from low-cost countries to 24% of the total, from the current 14%.

Trading highlights

Indiabulls Real Estate was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 138 crore followed by Hindalco and Reliance Industries.

Advancers

Larsen & Toubro surged nearly 2.8% to Rs 2,166 and was the best performing stock on the market.. The company gained after it announced today that its board would meet on July 3 2007 to offer a special dividend. Other capital goods sector companies also rallied. The engineering company BHEL advanced 0.7% to Rs 1,450, after it announced it secured an order worth Rs 106 crore from RINL to be fulfilled within 28 months.

Telecom companies also surged. Reliance Communications gained nearly 2% to Rs 523, and Bharti Airtel ended up over 1.2% to Rs 833. Bharti Airtel is about to fulfill its ambitious plan to be in the digital media space and launch DTH services by December this year.

ONGC advanced 0.9% to Rs 917. ONGC said its net profit for fiscal 2007 surged 8% to Rs15,643 crore, in spite of a subsidy payout of Rs17,024 crore. The company had reported a net profit of Rs14,431 crore in fiscal 2006.

Decliners

Cipla led the decliners, down 1.8% to Rs 206. Auto shares declined on profit taking with Bajaj Auto down 1.7% to Rs 2,138, while Tata Motors lost almost 1.1% to Rs 677, and Maruti Udyog slipped 1.1% to Rs 753.

IT stocks were under heavy selling pressure. Satyam Computers lost 1.5% to Rs 455, TCS declined 1.3% to Rs 1,126, Infosys Technologies slid 0.8% to Rs 1,936, and Wipro dipped 0.4% to Rs 515.

ICICI Bank declined 0.2% to Rs 952. The bank failed to receive the permission of the government to transfer $477 million of insurance and asset-management holdings to a new company with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. likely to buy a stake. ICICI sold last week $5 billion of shares to raise funds to increase loans and investment. Index heavy Reliance Industries finished 0.1% higher at Rs 1,706.