Market: Indices

03 May 2007

Under arrangement with Thomas White International*

Helped by the firm trend across global markets, Indian indexes gained substantially today. The Sensex moved past 14000 in opening trading, helped by gains across most sectors. Reliance Industries gained sharply in the afternoon and helped the indexes to retain early gains.

Sensex closed with gains of 206 points at 14078 and the Nifty gained 63 points to end at 4151. Nifty May futures closed at a premium of 4 points to the spot index.

Reliance Industries saw a major up move today and ended with gains of 4.17 per cent. Among other oil and gas stocks, BPCL rallied 3.99 per cent and HPCL closed 3.65 per cent higher.

IPCL ended with gains of 3.65 per cent.

Bajaj Auto was the best performer among Nifty stocks with gains of 4.21 per cent.

PNB was the best performer among frontline banks, adding 3.33 per cent.

Smaller banks and financial stocks did very well today. IDBI surged 7.1 per cent while IDFC ended 4.06 per cent higher.

Reliance Capital added 5.91 per cent and ING Vysya Bank gained 5.93 per cent.

SAIL remained firm throughout the session and closed 3.45 per cent higher.

Ranbaxy did very well and added 3.29 per cent.

Bharti Airtel sustained the up trend and closed 2.95 per cent higher.

Gujarat Ambuja was the other major gainer, ending 3.26 per cent higher.

Tata Motors was the worst performer among Nifty stocks with losses of 2.48 per cent after the company reported a decline in sales of commercial vehicles for the month of April.

HDFC Bank remained weak throughout the sessions and lost 1.91 per cent.

HLL slipped 1.73 per cent.

Reliance Communications lost 1.12 per cent, even after the company launched a new marketing initiative with ultra-low-priced mobile handsets.

Wipro, Hindalco and Zee Entertainment ended with marginal losses.

Global markets / crude oil
US markets gained yesterday on more corporate deals and expectations of good results from the remaining companies yet to announce their numbers. The decline in crude oil prices helped the sentiment even further.

The Dow gained nearly 0.6 per cent to close at yet another new lifetime high while the S&P 500 index went very close to the 1500 mark before settling 0.65 per cent higher. Technology stocks once again outperformed and the NASDAQ index closed 1.05 per cent higher.

Asian markets continued to do well. Hong Kong rallied nearly 1.45 per cent while Malaysia closed 1.55 per cent higher.

Singapore ended nearly a per cent higher and Indonesia gained 0.85 per cent. Thailand gained almost 0.65 per cent and South Korea ended with gains of over 0.4 per cent.

European markets opened higher but have come under pressure. Major European indexes, except London, are trading with losses of between 0.35 per cent and a per cent each in afternoon trading.

Crude oil prices cooled off yesterday and near month NYMEX futures ended at $63.68 per barrel. The commodity is trading above $64 per barrel in European trading today.
Large-cap news flow

Wockardt has acquired a French pharmaceutical group for $265 million in an all cash deal. The acquired company is the fourth largest independent pharma group in France with annual revenues of $150 million.
Satyam has opened a new development centre which can employ 750 professionals at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh
Jet Airways has hiked the fuel surcharge on all domestic tickets.
M&M said that the open offers to the shareholders of Punjab Tractors and Swaraj Mazda are under preparation and would be announced later.
HCL Technologies has launched new frameworks for application testing and business activity monitoring.
Tata Chemicals would invest up to $1 billion over the next 4 years to expand capacity and on acquisitions, according to reports.

Mid-Cap Action
Mid-caps and small caps also extended their gains from Monday. The CNX Mid-cap index gained 92 points, or 1.76 per cent, to end at 5338. The BSE mid-cap index gained 1.22 per cent and the BSE small cap index closed 0.86 per cent higher.

Media and entertainment stocks continued to do well today. Cinevsistas and Mid-Day Multimedia closed at 20 per cent upper circuits while Network 18 rallied nearly 20 per cent. Pyramid Saimira was locked in 10 per cent upper circuits and Cyber Media gained nearly 10 per cent.

Titanor Components and GMDC also closed at 20 per cent upper circuits.

Emkay Share, Talbros Auto and Goldstone Technologies were the other major gainers among mid-caps.

Among mid-cap technology stocks, Aztecsoft lost another 5.49 per cent after losing nearly 7 per cent on Monday. I-Flex lost 4.71 per cent.

Garware Offshore lost 6.54 per cent and Varun Shipping ended 6.13 per cent lower.

UFlex, BF Utilities, BEPL, Atlanta, Mirza International and Teledata were the other major losers among mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

Mid-cap news flow

Pratibha Industries has received a new hospital construction contract worth Rs80 crore and a building construction contract worth nearly Rs20 crore.
Petron Engineering has received an Rs4.5 crore order .
City Union Bank would split its Rs10 shares into 10 shares of Re1 each, subject to RBI approval.
Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren said it has acquired new orders worth Rs700 crore.
Sangam India would issue up to 50 lakh equity shares or convertible warrants on a preferential basis.
The board of Granules India would meet later this month to consider a preferential issue.
Kanoria Chemicals has allotted 20.34 lakh equity shares to International Finance Corporation at Rs100 per share.
Orient Paper said it has already received carbon credits which are valued at Rs6.4 crore.
Supreme Yarns would set up a hand knitting yarn unit at an investment of Rs15 crore, to be raised through preferential issues to strategic investors.
Geometric Software said one of its overseas subsidiaries has hiked its stake in another company to become the majority shareholder.

Thomas White Global Research, part of the Thomas White International Group, publishes capital market research for global institutions and investment banks.

*Disclaimer: Thomas White International may have recommended some of the stocks specifically mentioned in this report to our clients. Lord Asset Management Trust, our mutual fund management associate, and our asset management division may also have positions in some of the stocks specifically mentioned in this report. As a policy, employees of Thomas White International are not allowed to invest or trade in common stocks and common stock derivatives. This report is only for the purpose of information and is not an investment advice. Readers are advised to consult a certified financial advisor before taking any investment decisions. While efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided in the content, the author or publisher shall not be held responsible for any loss caused to any person whatsoever.