The market was gripped by the bears as it tanked by 5 per cent over previous week amid concerns over inflation, interest rate hikes and speculation over a hike in short-term capital gains tax in the forthcoming Budget. | |
| Overall, the Sensex lost 723 points to close at 13632.5 and the Nifty lost 207 points to close at 3938. Even mid-caps and small caps succumbed to the selling pressure. Unlike in the past, foreign institutional investors have sold only marginally last week. Mutual funds, as usual, were comparatively passive. |
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| What to expect this week |
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| Market players prefer to be cautious and selective about stocks after the last week's correction. However, they do not see a substantial downside though they expect volatility due to the Budget. |
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| Banking and real estate stocks may continue to witness nervousness due to interest rate hikes and inflation worries. |
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| Overall, market participants are looking for a direction from the Budget which will be announced on Wednesday. |
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| Stock to watch | Manugraph India | | Last week's close (Rs) | 190.85 | | Prev. week's close (Rs) | 189.25 | | Week's high (Rs) | 221.40 | | Week's low (Rs) | 190.00 | | Last week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr) | 2.46 | | Prev. week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr) | 6.78 | | Number of up/down move | 2/3 |
Despite lacklustre performance in the last quarters, mutual fund players are still upbeat on Manugraph India and are purchasing shares from the open market. Recently one of the schemes from Reliance Mutual Fund bought around 6.86 lakh shares following HDFC Mutual Fund, which had bought about 3 lakh shares in early February at Rs 201. The stock has been a major underperformer and trades at 10.8 times its estimated earnings for FY07. Manugraph India is the domestic market leader in newspaper web-offset printing machines with 70 per cent market share and is an established tier-I supplier to large publishing houses, regional newspapers and publications, and also has export revenues. Its acquisition of US-based web offset printing machines maker "� the$70 million Dauphin Graphic Machines for $19.2 million will help it to get an entry into the North American market, besides increasing its manufacturing capabilities and global market share. |
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