Bargain buys to the fore

STOCKS REPORT

Bargain hunting in sectors such as oil, metal and banking helped the Bombay Stock exchange (BSE) Sensex to close with modest gains.

The BSE Sensex closed up 0.11 per cent (6.30 points) at 5,932.52 points, extending its gains since Thursday to 3.7 per cent.

The National Stock Exchange ended flat at 1,880.75 points. The market breadth was slightly negative, with losers outpacing gainers in the 867:827 ratio.

Volatility found its way back into the markets today after yesterday's steady gains. The Sensex had closed higher by almost 140 points on Monday.

Moving in an intra-day range of 106 points, the Sensex touched a high of 5972.94 and a low of 5,866.62 in intra-day trades, touching both its extremes in the last hour's trade.

A dealer at a local brokerage said, "The sentiment appears to be cautious despite positive foreign fund inflows."

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers at Rs 250.8 crore on Monday and have brought in a total of Rs 4,908.3 crore in 2004 into the domestic markets.

Players indicate that profit-taking is seen at higher levels as participants are unsure of the Sensex rallying further at this moment.

A broker said, "The market is likely to remain volatile and range-bound till the election results are out."

Reliance Industries Ltd rose 0.7 per cent to Rs 593.25 and Hindalco climbed 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,331 on hopes that a booming economy will drive up demand for commodities.

ICICI Bank gained 3.7 per cent to Rs 345.75 after it announced its plans to raise Rs 3,000-3,500 crore through a domestic public equity issue to fund its growth plans.

Technology bellwether Infosys Technologies shed 2.6 per cent to close at Rs 5,506.80, while Wipro lost 1.9 per cent to end at Rs 1,600.80.

Automobile and cement stocks, which led the latest market rally, witnessed profit-taking. Bajaj Auto was down 1.8 per cent to close at Rs 1,013.35, while Grasim Industries shed 0.7 per cent to Rs 1,107.45.

ITC was up 0.88 per cent at Rs 1,005.15 and Hindustan Lever was up 0.54 per cent at Rs 194.25.

Bharat Heavy Electricals was down 2.30 per cent at Rs 574.50, while MTNL was down 1.13 per cent at Rs 135.40. Tata Motors was down 1.01 per cent at Rs 353.50 and Hero Honda Motor slipped 0.60 per cent to Rs 480.75.