Market spurts in late trade

Mimicking the come back of India’s opening batsman Virendra Sehwag from a bad patch in the first test in Chennai against South Africa, the key benchmark stock indices surged today. Positive cues from Asian and European markets propelled the market higher. The market shrugged off a surge in inflation and overnight slide in US stocks. Capital goods stocks soared at the fag end of the session, followed by metal and IT stocks. For records, Sehwag was upbeat at 254 after tea on the third day of play.

Banking shares, which hovered in negative territory on surge in inflation, turned green at the fag end of the trading session. Mid-caps and small-caps surged with their barometer indices on BSE outperforming the Sensex.

In Europe, key indices in UK, France and Germany were up by 0.05% to 0.53%. In Asia, the key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were up by 0.20% to 4.94%.

India’s wholesale price index rose 6.68% in the 12 months to 15 March 2008, surging from the previous week’s rise of 5.92%, government data showed on Friday. The rate is highest since 27 January 2007, when inflation was 6.69%.

As per provisional closing, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 386.07 points or 2.41% at 16,401.63. The index gained 436.52 points at session’s high of 16,452.08, hit at the fag end of the session. The Sensex lost 131.11 points at the day’s low of 15,884.45, hit in the early afternoon trade.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty was up 121.3 points or 2.51% at 4951.55, as per provisional closing.

The BSE Mid-cap index was up 4.06% at 6,531.30. The BSE small-cap index was up 4.97% at 7,900.76.

The market breadth was extremely strong. On BSE, 2328 stocks advanced, 374 declined and 38 stocks were unchanged.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 6368 crore as against Rs 6,399.95 crore on Thursday, 27 March 2008.

Low rollovers from March 2008 series to April 2008 series were witnessed on Thursday, 28 March 2008, when derivative contracts for March 2008 series expired. As per reports, the marketwide rollover of derivative positions series stood at 79% as compared to 84% in March 2008 series from February 2008. Similarly Nifty rollover stood at 63% as against 75% during in March 2008 series from February 2008.

India’s largest state-run oil explorer by market capitalisation ONGC fell 0.84% at Rs 1060.10 on reports the company may report losses on every barrel of crude oil that it sells due to the high subsidy burden that it has to bear. The company’s margin on oil sales is currently at an all-time low of around 15 cents per barrel, almost a tenth of what it was two years ago, the reports added.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 3.30% to Rs 2350.

India’s largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank rose 0.65% at Rs 840.

Top Sensex gainers were, Tata Steel (up 10% at Rs 720), Infosys Technologies (up 6.54% at Rs 1535), Wipro (up 6.02% at Rs 456), Larsen & Toubro (up 5.95% at Rs 3140.10), and Bharat heavy Electricals (up 5.25% at Rs 2090).

Top Sensex losers were, HDFC Bank (down 2.77% at Rs 1395.25), Housing Development Finance Corporation (down 0.96% at Rs 2636), Tata Motors (down 0.95% at Rs 649), Reliance Communication (up 0.92% at Rs 533.10) and Hindustan Unilever (down 0.78% at Rs 242.10).

Drug maker Alembic surged 20% to Rs 55 on reports that the company plans to set up its own special economic zone dedicated to the pharma sector.

India’s leading manufacturer of inorganic chemicals by sales Tata Chemicals soared 6.05% to Rs 288.50 after the company said it has successfully completed the acquisition of US-based General Chemical Industrial Products Inc.

Varun Shipping Company surged 6.84% to Rs 72.60 after the company said it has acquired India’s third largest anchor handling and towing supply vessel.

Biotechnologies firm Jupiter Bioscience soared 9.50% to Rs 149.25 after the company said on Thursday, 27 March 2008 it would acquire a manufacturing facility of Merck Life Sciences, Switzerland, for an undisclosed sum.

Display units maker MIC Electronics advanced 4.14% to Rs 700 after the company informed stock exchange about it and its subsidiaries receiving new orders.

Construction firm Era Infra Engineering rose 0.90% to Rs 597 after the company said its joint venture company with KMB has secured an order worth Rs 148.40 crore from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

US markets dropped yesterday, 28 March 2008, following Oracle’s weak sales outlook. Concerns about financial companies also continued. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 120.40 points, or 0.97%, to 12,302.46. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 15.37 points, or 1.15%, to 1,325.76, and the Nasdaq Composite index was down 43.53 points, or 1.87%, to 2,280.83.

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