Pharma, bank stocks lead rally

STOCK REPORT

Tuesday's rally on the markets was led mainly by the pharmaceutical scrips Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's which gained on prospects of gaining lucrative six-month exclusive-marketing rights to a cholestrol-reducing drug in the US-market.

While Dr Reddy's, which put on nearly 17.5 per cent to end at Rs 1682 on the BSE, was bolstered after it announced that it had already entered into an agreement with the patent-holder to market the generic versions of the drug if some other company won the exclusivity deal.

Ranbaxy put on 10.5 per cent to end at Rs 522 after a US court ruled against a US regulator ruling denying the Indian company and its Israeli partner the right to six-month exclusive marketing rights.

Other strong performers included banking stocks which went up on prospects on better earnings after a round of increase in their prime lending rates (PLR), up by around 0.5 per cent on most banks on Tuesday.

Bank of India was the biggest gainer among the banking scrips on the BSE 100 list, with an 8 per cent jump to Rs 134, followed by Bank of Baroda which went up 6.5 per cent to Rs 246.55 and Andhra Bank, up 6.25 per cent to Rs 85 and Vijaya Bank, up by 5.36 per cent to Rs 56.05 and UTI Bank which went up 5.29 per cent to Rs 365.4.

Zee Telefilms was another prominent gainer, putting on nearly 8.7 per cent to Rs 287.45 as also Indian Hotels, which went up 8.12 per cent to Rs 1473.85.

Metal stocks too were another category of strong performers, with Jindal Steel and Hindalco gaining more than 5 per cent each while Tata Steel and Essar Steel went up by less that four per cent.

Among the losers on Tuesday were cement and technology stocks. ACC was the biggest loser on the Sensex with a 2.4 per cent drop, followed by Grasim Industries which lost 1.9 per cent due to profit-booking.

Though Tuesday's gains were broadly-based with more than 60 per cent of the BSE 500 stocks ending up with gains, the extent of gains was much higher in the large-caps.