IT Stocks Surge

123jump.com Staff
21 Feb, 2008
New York City

Software services exporters led the gainers in the trading. Satyam surged nerly 9% and led the gainers in the Sensex index. Infosys rose 5%, TCS increased 4.6%, and Wipro added 6%. Sensex fell in the morning hours but rebounded in the afternoon trading on the strength in the European markets and sustained interest in the new issue offering of Rural Electrification Corporation. HDFC Infrastructure sold its rights for development in Mumbai for 900 crore rupees.

[R]10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai – Software services exporters gained in the trading. Larsen & Toubro won two more orders increasingly its tally to five large orders for the year.[/R]

Market Sentiment

Indian markets closed firm on Thursday with the benchmark index Sensex at 0.7% or 117.08 at 17,734.68. In the broader markets, the Nifty advanced. 0.7% or at 5,191.80.

The market rebounded in late trade to wipe-off losses and post modest gains for the day. Strong markets in Europe and good response to Rural Electrification Corporation public issue helped the recovery.

Of the Sensex 30 shares, 21 stocks gained and 9 stocks fell. On the BSE trading, 1,465 shares advanced, 1,253 share declined, and 71 shares were unchanged. Satyam led the gainers in the index with a rise of 8.7% and HDFC led the decliners with a fall of 3.7%.

Buying was evident in IT, metal, and realty, oil & gas and healthcare shares while selling was visible in banking and capital good stocks.

Satyam Computer led the advancers in the BSE-30 index. Hindalco, Tata Steel, Infosys and Wipro gained more than 4% each.

Of the NSE-50 stocks, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, Nalco and SAIL gained by over 6.1% each.

The BSE IT index surged 5.4% leading all other indices. In this index, Satyam Computer, Mphasis, Rolta India, NIIT Ltd and HCL Tech were the major advancers.

Trading Turnover

Daily turnover on BSE amounted to 5,383 crore rupees and on the National Stock Market was recorded at 12,193 crore rupees.

Reliance Capital was the most active stock on the BSE with a turnover of 307 crore rupees. Reliance Natural Resources, Reliance Power, Essar Oil and Reliance Energy were among the most active stocks.

Gainers and Decliners

Satyam Computer Services soared 8.7% to 459.30 rupees on 26.33 lakh shares and led the advancing in the Sensex index.

Infosys Technologies climbed 4.6% to 1,639.70 rupees, Wipro rose 5.8% to 435 rupees, and TCS surged 4.6% to 925 rupees. The company announced on Thursday that it has signed a multi-year contract with Chrysler LLC to provide a comprehensive portfolio of information technology services.

Hindalco Industries jumped 7.5% to 190 rupees, Tata Steel gained 4.9% to 810.25 rupees, Sterlite Industries added 2.2% to 801.50 rupees and Steel Authority of India gained 6.3% to 238.10 rupees.

Hindustan Unilever rose 3.3% to 221 rupees and Ambuja Cement advanced 3.5% to 120 rupees.

Bajaj Auto was up 2.8% to 2,404 rupees. The company set March 25th as the record date for determining the shareholders to split companies as approved by the Bombay High Court.

The shareholders on record date will receive one share of Bajaj Auto and one share in Bajaj Finserv.

Housing Development Finance Company slipped 3.7% to 2,650 rupees and led the decliners in the Sensex index.

Housing Development & Infrastructure gained after the company said it had agreed to sell the development rights for a project in Mumbai for 900 crore rupees.

State Bank of India fell 1% to 2,184 rupees, ICICI Bank lost 1.8% to 146.25 rupees.

Four public sector banks, led by State Bank of India on Wednesday, announced a cut in prime lending rates between 0.25% and 0.5% after P Chidambaram urged banks to lower the loan rates.

Maruti Suzuki India slid 0.4% to 766 rupees on the news that it has signed an agreement with Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone for a mega car terminal at Mundra, Kutch district, Gujarat.

Larsen & Toubro declined 0.68% to 3,439 rupees despite announcing it has struck an order from Cairn India for laying crude oil and gas pipeline from Barmer, Rajasthan to Salaya, Gujarat. On Tuesday, L&T announced that it had secured an order worth 1,250 crore rupees from Oil & Natural Gas Corporation.

Last week, the company also won an order worth 311 crore rupees from Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation for design, supply, installation and commissioning of five electricity substations at Qatar.

The latest order brings to five, the orders that the company secured since the beginning of this year.

Bharat Heavy Electricals shed 1.2% to 2,099 rupee.

Centurion Bank of Punjab surged 15.9% to 57.75 rupees on heavy volume of 1.57 crore shares on reports that it is in merger talks with HDFC Bank.

Reliance Update

Reliance Power gained 3.7% to 423.20 rupees. Reliance Industries gained 0.8% at 2,503 rupees on 5 lakh (or 500,000) shares.