Value play to the fore

STOCKS REPORT

Value buying in select blue chips helped the market recover somewhat at the fag end of the session. Trading in a small range on either sides of the break-even, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex closed in positive territory but brokers said that profit taking was also seen at some counters.

Consumer durables, banking, oil and PSU counters were among the biggest gainers on Thursday while select technology and pharma counters ended with losses. In the BSE Sensex basket, 16 out of the 30 scrips closed higher. The breadth of the market was also positive, with gainers outpacing losers 7:5.

Nervousness is visible at higher levels as most indexes are trading at their lifetime highs, brokers said. Strong foreign institutional buying has fuelled the recent rally but domestic participation has been limited, they added.

Though the undertone is positive as there are no visible negatives, investors are booking profits and also churning investments, analysts said.

The BSE Sensex hit a high of 6917.60 and a low of 6849.98 in intra-day trades before closing at 6907.65, up 14.83 points (0.22 per cent) from Wednesday's close. Volumes were lower than on Wednesday. In the cash segment of the bourses; the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 3,250.98 crore because of a big block deal in the HDFC Bank counter and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 5,052.14 crore.

The SBI counter was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, rising 3 per cent to close at Rs 742.50, followed by HDFC, up 2.30 per cent to Rs 819.70, ONGC gained 2.05 per cent to Rs 930.85, HPCL was up 1.28 per cent to Rs 339.40 and Reliance Industries gained 1.12 per cent to Rs 593.95.

Cipla was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, falling 3.69 per cent to Rs 284.60, Bharti Tele-Ventures was down 2.87 per cent to Rs 223.15, Wipro fell 1.43 per cent to Rs 704.05, Ranbaxy Labs was down 0.84 per cent to Rs 1,082.85 and Infosys Technologies was down 0.83 per cent to Rs 2,232.10.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Indian shares worth Rs 793.20 crore on Wednesday according to data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India website. Strong buying support from foreign funds has helped the market record gains, brokers said.