The Hindu Business Line : Volatile trading session at BSE

IT was a volatile trading session at the bourses on Tuesday. After touching a high of 3118.58 during the early part of the day, the BSE Sensex witnessed a sharp slide in the later part to close at 3081.94 points. A sharp fall in the values of both old economy and new economy stocks in the last one hour of trading led to the Sensex closing 14.75 points (0.48 per cent) lower than Monday's close.

The fall can be attributed to profit booking at the end of the day's trading. The S & P CNX Nifty also declined by 5.60 points (or 0.57 per cent) to settle for the day at 976.85. The gross turnover at the exchange rose from Rs. 1,028.36 crore on Monday's trading to Rs 1,172.04 crore during the day's trading. The advances to declines ratio stood at 0.76, with 689 stocks appreciating in value while 905 stocks logged declines.

Click here for table

Among the significant gainers during the day were Himachal Futuristic, Vijaya Bank, Aurobindo Pharma, Ashok Leyland, TV 18, Indo Gulf Fertilisers, Digital GlobalSoft and Moser Baer. For the second consecutive day, the Himachal Futuristic stock appreciated by Rs 3.50 (or 13.4 per cent) to rest at Rs 29.60. The trading volumes in the counter continued to surge from 86.51 lakh shares on Monday's trading to 1.22 crore shares .

Among banking stocks, there were a fair share of gainers and losers. Among the major gainers were Vijaya Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of Rajasthan. The Vijaya Bank stock marched up by Rs 2.55 to close at Rs 23.55 with the trading volumes in the counter rising from 6.93 lakh shares on Mondayto 14.79 lakh shares during the day.

Bolstered by strong volumes, the Aurobindo Pharma stock appreciated by Rs 17.15 to end at Rs 288.75. Compared to 16,304 shares traded on Monday, the volumes vaulted to 56,123 shares on Tuesday. Recently, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh has approved the merger of Ranit Pharma with Aurobindo Pharma.

The TV 18 stock also witnessed strong interest, with the stock moving up by Rs 2.7 to settle at Rs 82.8. The trading volumes in the stock spiralled from 15,470 shares on Monday to 1.03 lakh shares during the day.

The Moser Baer stock attracted heightened trading activity, with an improvement in the stock price by Rs 3.05 to close at Rs 284.10. The trading volumes have jumped five fold, from Monday's 10,281 shares to 58,640 shares . The rise in the stock price and volumes has to be seen in the context of the European Commission terminating the alleged anti-dumping proceedings against Moser Baer with respect to exports of Recordable Compact Discs. This was done after elaborate investigation.

Among the prominent losers during the day were Novartis, Karur Vysya Bank, HMT, Sterlite Optical, Wockhardt, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Chemicals and Tata Engineering.

Following a poor fourth quarter performance and lower than expected buyback price of Rs. 250, the Novartis stock was marked down by Rs. 31.2 (or 11.8 per cent) on Tuesday. The stock closed at Rs 232.90. The selling pressure in the stock was also evident from trading volumes, which increased from 67,728 shares on Monday to 93,002 shares during the day .

The Sterlite Optical stock, which was among the biggest gainers on Monday, lost part of its gains during the day. The stock declined by Rs 2.20 to settle at Rs 35.35. The trading volumes also moved up from 4.55 lakh shares on Mondayto 4.66 lakh shares . Other than these, some banking stocks were the major losers.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Bear domination

HSE plans golden handshake

Priyadarshini Cement hits upper limit

Fund buying lifts UTI Bank

Unchanged open offer price pulls down L&T

SBI remains active

Volatile trading session at BSE