Bank stocks shimmer

STOCKS REPORT

Banking stocks were in the spotlight yesterday even as the broader market took a pasting on profit booking at higher levels.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's banking index, Bankex, appreciated by 1.15 per cent to end at 2,904.14 points, while the Sensex, the benchmark index, closed 26.33 points lower at 5,815.87.

Meanwhile, the National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty, a broader index, lost 16.55 points to end at 1,843.85.

The Sensex touched a high of 5,872.75 and a low of 5,769.34 during intraday trades. The market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers by 1,092:614. Cash market turned over Rs 2,654.34 crore on the BSE and Rs 5,300.58 crore on the NSE.

Market players said the overall sentiment was that of caution ahead of the mega public offering of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation which starts on March 5, 2004.

A dealer with a local brokerage said, "All the public offers of IPCL, CMC, IBP, GAIL India and Dredging Corporation of India drew good subscriptions, but the issue of ONGC is the largest of all and hence the reason for cautiousness."

He added that the fears of liquidity drain from the secondary market is playing on the minds of the market. Shares in ONGC crept up by 1.13 per cent to end at Rs 760.05.

Trading hours on both the BSE and NSE have been extended till 16:15 IST from today in order to compensate for the loss of connectivity for NSE members between 11:55 IST and 12:25 IST on account of sun outage. The extended timing will remain till March 18, 2004.

Shares in ICICI Bank were up 4.69 per cent at Rs 289.25 and those in State Bank of India were up 0.98 per cent at Rs 605.45.

Zee Telefilms was down 4.64 per cent at Rs 130.60. FMCG pivotal Hindustan Lever was down 4.04 per cent at Rs 158.05.

Other heavyweights Reliance Industries was down 1.01 per cent at Rs 574.50 and ITC was down 0.29 per cent at Rs 1,167.55, contributing to the weakness of the Sensex.

Tech pivotals Infosys Technologies was up 2.12 per cent at Rs 5,297, Satyam Computer was up 0.43 per cent at Rs 311.85 and Wipro was up 0.30 per cent at Rs 1,517.10.