In a slump, awaiting fresh stimulus

STOCKS REPORT

The market ended negative in a rather lacklustre trading session with tech and select old economy stocks among the gainers.

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex hovered in a narrow range, up 28.78 points at one point, before ending 5.59 points lower to close at 5,070.29. The Nifty ended 6.60 points lower to close at 1,594.15.

The daily turnover at the BSE was low as investors preferred to stay away from the market ahead of the expiry of the July contracts on Thursday.

The BSE registered a turnover of Rs 1,870 crore, much lower than the average daily turnover of Rs 2,134 crore recorded in the past four trading sessions.

Ambreesh Baliga, vice-president, Karvy Stock Broking, said, "The market is trading in a narrow range because of lack of any positive triggers. Post result announcements, there has been profit booking witnessed at higher levels."

Index heavyweight ONGC stock slipped 2.48 per cent to Rs 683.85 after it said on Wednesday it bore a cost of around $176 million as subsidy to oil marketing firms.

Tech stocks were in limelight ahead of the much awaited TCS IPO which will commence from Thursday. Tech pivotal Infosys Technologies was up 1.97 per cent to Rs 1,507.95, Satyam Computer was up 1.87 per cent to Rs 329.55 and Wipro ended 1.45 per cent lower to Rs 526.85.

Analysts said, institutional investors are likely to increase weightage of technology in their portfolios, since the sector is considered to be insulated from the concerns of the monsoon and oil prices. Wipro was also in limelight after the company said that it had won a multi-year contract from Switzerland's Loyalty Gate.

Others heavyweights such as State Bank of India was down 2.09 per cent to Rs 433.05, Zee Telefilms was down 2.59 per cent to Rs 143.05, Dr Reddy's Labs was down 1.97 per cent to Rs 745.05 and cement major Grasim ended 0.88 per cent lower to close at Rs 963.95.

Gujarat Ambuja Cement which announced impressive quarterly results too ended 1.55 per cent lower to close at Rs 266.90 on profit booking.

Reliance Industries, however, managed to buck the trend to gain 1.19 per cent to Rs 470.50 recovering from the day's low of Rs 463.55 - on the back of strong quarterly results announced on Tuesday.

A free fall at the Global Trust Bank counter continued for the second consecutive day. The stock plunged 24 per cent in Wednesday's trading to Rs 2.55 on a volume of 32.2 lakh shares on the BSE. On the National Stock Exchange, the counter witnessed volumes of more than 69 lakh shares.

Oriental Bank of Commerce was down 1.92 per cent to Rs 242.20 off from its day's low of Rs 238.15 on selective buying at lower levels. The PSU bank posted a 26.82 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 180.52 crore as against Rs 142.34 crore in the same quarter last year on a total income of Rs 965.11 crore as against Rs 988.39 crore during the same period. Punjab National Bank was down 4.18 per cent to Rs 263.70 coming off its day's high of Rs 277.50.