Profit booking snips gains

STOCK REPORT

Key indices ended up on Monday, but were off their highs on profit-booking in cement shares, dealers said. Fast moving consumer goods major ITC, down 4 per cent at Rs 148.60, also accounted for the weakness.

ITC shares fell, as the government introduced a bill in Parliament on Friday, proposing to remove tobacco from the "declared goods" list. The move may result in a state tax levy of over 4 per cent on tobacco.

Among cement shares, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and ACC, down 4 per cent each, were worst-hit among Nifty stocks.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex ended at 12902.63, up 17.64 points, or 0.14 per cent from Friday, after touching a low of 12844.99 and a high of 13056.86 intraday.

The National Stock Exchange's Nifty closed at 3734.60, up 16.60 points, or 0.50 per cent. It touched a low of 3713.90 and a high of 3781.45 during the session.

The combined turnover on BSE and NSE was over Rs 10,800 crore, down 22 per cent from Friday.

The CNX Midcap Index ended up 0.53 per cent, while S&P CNX 500 Index rose 0.52 per cent.

The market opened slightly up, and later rose over 1 per cent on strong January industrial data.

The industrial production data for January showed a growth of 10.9 per cent, compared with 8.5 per cent a year ago.

However, profit-booking in the second-half of the session and limited activity of foreign funds limited the gains.

"Indian indices have been the worst performers among Asian markets, and most investors are cutting losses right now. On Monday was one such opportunity," said Abhijit Chakraborty, vice-president, institutional sales, BRICS Securities.

Cement shares were choppy and trading volumes high as value-buying buoyed shares at mid-day, but fell later on profit-booking.

"The companies still show promise of a 7-8 per cent growth, but the sector has been de-rated post interference of the government," said Chakraborty.

IT and construction stocks supported key indices because the revenue visibility in these sectors for next 2-3 years remains unchanged, said Biranchi Sahu, of Khandwala Securities.

Jet Airways was top Nifty gainer, up 7 per cent at Rs 576.95, in a knee-jerk reaction to news that the Federation of Indian Airlines will appeal to the aviation ministry to reconsider the proposal to levy peak hour landing and navigation charges.

"The charge would actually be beneficial to Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines that cater to corporate clients, and could have passed on to customers. Now, they will continue to hover and waste fuel in peak times due to congestion," said Sandeep Shenoy of Pioneer Intermediaries.

Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Nifty's second highest gainer, rose 2.8 per cent at Rs 1,012.50 as it will detail findings on its new chemical entity on Thursday. The company is also expected to detail de-merger plans for its research arm.