Markets at a glance

Last week, the market witnessed new highs on the back of continued FII inflows, firm global markets, high expectations from the budget and short covering.

The Sensex jumped 219.65 points to close at 10200.76 during the week after hitting an all-time high of 10304 on Thursday. S&P CNX Nifty gained 68.55 points to close at 3050.05.

However the market breadth was negative for most part of the trading sessions due to profit booking. Net FII inflow this year till date has been Rs 5440 crore.

Market breadth was extremely positive over the week with 26 out of 30 stocks ending in a positive territory. The biggest push to the Sensex came from Tata Steel, HDFC and NTPC. Tata Steel climbed 9.5 per cent to Rs 422.9 contributing 24.89 points to the Sensex.

HDFC (up by 4.8 per cent to Rs 1362.75) and NTPC (up by 9.2 per cent to Rs 132.75) together added 45.64 points. Bajaj Auto (up by 7.6per cent to Rs 2583.75) HLL (up by 4.6 per cent to Rs 242.15) and ONGC (up by 5 per cent to Rs 1176.59 were other gainers. On the downside, HDFC Bank (down by 4.2 per cent to Rs 711.5) and Infosys technologies ( down by 1.06 per cent to Rs 2756.4) were the biggest losers.

The week ended with most of the sectoral indices ending in the positive territory except consumer durables and TECk index. The biggest gainer was the BSE Metal index with over 4.57 per cent gain. Jindal Stainless (14.5 per cent gains), JSW Steel (10.3 per cent) and Essar Steel (6.8 per cent) were the major contributors to the Metals index.

PSU index also gained over 4.18 per cent. Consumer durables and TECk incdex, declined by 0.32 per cent and 0.11 per cent respectively.

The Dow Jones Industrial ended the week down 53.47 points , closing at 11,061.85. However S&P 500 index gained 2.19 points to close at 1289.4 and Nasdaq rose 4.68 ponits to end at 2,287.04. Rising energy prices due to high crude oil prices and fears of inflation and rate hike by New Fed chairman led to the nervousness.

Crude oil futures jumped by $2 per barrel yesterday to close at around $62.9 a barrel due to an attack on a massive oil facility in Saudi Arabia. While gold prices were on the rise, there was mixed reaction of dollar against major currencies.

What to expect this week

The Union Budget slated for Tuesday will decide the direction of the markets. Markets have been trading in a range for the past few weeks since several institutional investors are waiting in the wings to escape policy risk. If the budget proposals are market-friendly, stocks could surge once again.

Stock to watch 

PARAMOUNT COMMUNICATIONS LTD
Last week's close (Rs)	157.00
Prev. week's close (Rs)	164.60
Week's high (Rs)	166.65
Week's low (Rs)	155.00
Last week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr)	4.11
Prev. week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr	6.90
Number of up/down move	1/4

Paramount communications is attracting increased interest from institutional players though the stock has declined by 4.62 over the week at Rs 157.

Recently MIREA asset management bought about five lakh shares of the counter. Mutual funds namely CanBank and Sundaram already hold about 8 per cent of the company's total capital.

Analysts are bullish about the stock as power sector, whether generation, transmission or distribution, is expected to do well backed by the reform process.

Paramount Communications is a supplier of all types of cables for the power sector. Its sales has grown over 100 per cent at Rs 62.2 croreover the last year while profits have shot up by over 650 per cent at 9.7 crore for calendar year 2005.

Stock of the week 

3M INDIA LIMITED
Last week's close (Rs)	1253.97
Prev. week's close (Rs)	1083.38
Week's high (Rs)	1270.98
Week's low (Rs)	1037.50
Last week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr)	1.94
Prev. week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr)	1.43
Number of up/down move	4/1

3M India stock jumped up 15.9 per cent during the week to close at 1255.25. The stock hit an all-time high of 1273 in the intra-day trading on Friday.

The stock has outperformed the index in the past month, gained 35.64 percent against the Sensex gain of 5.32 per cent. The spike in the price of the stock is on account of its robust Q4 results. Net sales increased by 58 per cent to Rs. 110.67 crore.

The company reported a net profit increase of 294 per cent year on year in Q4 December 2005 at Rs 10.01 crore. 3M India trades an array of products applicable in the industrial, automotive, healthcare, consumer & office segments.