Advance tax buoys the Street

STOCK REPORT

Key share indices ended over 1 per cent up on short covering in index stocks as reports of healthy April-June advance tax payments by industry majors improved sentiment, helping market break its initial sluggish trend, dealers said.

Shares of most companies, which reported advance tax numbers on Tuesday, ended sharply up. A firm trend for the Asian and European indices also supported the market.

"Advance tax numbers were a trigger for the market, which has been directionless so far. The market rose on short covering in stocks such as oil companies," said Priyadarshi Srivastava, head-institutional sales, Niche Brokerage.

"The numbers, on a sequential basis, show growth in companies and this is the first indicator the first-quarter results may not be as bad as expected," Srivastava said. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex ended at 14295.50, up 215.36 points, or 1.5 per cent, after touching a low of 14,058.79 and a high of 14315.18 intraday.

The National Stock Exchange Nifty ended at 4,214.30, up 67.20 points, or 1.6 per cent. It moved between a low of 4,136.15 and a high of 4,222.40 during the day. The CNX Midcap Index ended up 1.1 per cent and the S&P CNX 500 Index up 1.5 per cent.

Banking shares were some of the biggest gainers on Tuesday. Bank Nifty ended up 3 per cent as a large fund bought nearly $50 million in the derivatives segment of the index, dealers said.

ICICI Bank ended at Rs 945, up 2.9 per cent, after its Rs 8,750 crore follow-on offer, which opened on Tuesday, was fully subscribed in the first 20 minutes of the opening.Biggest Nifty gainer was State Bank of India, up 4 per cent at Rs 1,372.

A senior finance ministry official said on Tuesday that by the weekend, the President is likely to approve the ordinance that allows the government to buy the Reserve Bank of India's 59.73 per cent stake in SBI.

Shares of Tata Steel, which has paid an advance tax of Rs 220 crore for April-June compared with Rs 180 crore a year ago, ended at Rs 612, up 4 per cent.

Larsen & Toubro ended at Rs 1,996, up 3.6 per cent. The company's joint venture with Eastern Contracting LLC bagged a Rs 610 crore order for residential property development. Sterlite Industries ended at Rs 560, up 3 per cent, as the company has priced its 130 million American depositary share issue at $13.44 per ADS.

Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, ended only slightly down after reporting their advance tax numbers.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp was at Rs 264, down 0.1 per cent.

Among losers, technology shares were the worst hit as the rupee continued to strengthen against the dollar.

Infosys Technologies was down 1.7 per cent at Rs 1,957, and Satyam Computer Services down 1.5 per cent at Rs 467.

"We do not expect technology shares to join the rally as the market will wait to see what impact rupee appreciation has on their earnings," Srivastava of Niche said.

National Aluminium ended down 1 per cent, while Ranbaxy Laboratories was down marginally.

Income-tax raid on MCX had little impact on the shares of Financial Technologies, the commodity exchange's promoter, dealers said.

The share ended at Rs 2,650, down 1 per cent, after partially recovering from an intraday low of Rs 2,570.

Decolight Ceramics listed at Rs 58.40 on BSE on Tuesday against Rs 54 issue price. The share ended at Rs 44.50.