Indices overcome early weakness to close strongly

13 June 2005

The news flow in the morning was not all positive with worries about monsoons getting louder, even though it is too early to start worrying about it. US markets had closed on a flat note on Friday, but Indian tech stocks had lost ground. Most traders were expecting the weak trend of the last two days of the previous weak to continue.

After a very brief spike at opening, the indices declined immediately and traders braced themselves for another weak session. However, surprising many, the markets found their bottom with an hour of opening and started to recover.

The recovery gained strength by afternoon as more frontline stocks joined the up trend. ICICI Bank was among the largest gainers among index stock with gains of close to 4 per cent. The stock is trading close to its all time high.

HLL continued its upward rally as many analysts are bullish on the FMCG sector after almost a year of under performance. ONGC was the other significant gainer with gains of close to 2 per cent, lending its huge weight to the Nifty.

Sensex closed at 6833, up 51 points and the Nifty at 2103, up 12 points from Friday's close. Nifty June futures discount to the spot widened to 19 points from Friday's 17 points.

Among Nifty stocks, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank and VSNL were the major percentage gainers while SCI, Nalco and Tata Chemicals were the major losers.