BOMBAY, 26 October 2003 — Next week should see a period of consolidation on the Bombay Stock Exchange following a sustained bout of profit-booking in the past few days, but the undertone remains bullish, dealers said Friday.
On Monday, the BSE closed at 4,851.67. Selling pressure was observed across-the-board. PSU stocks were the major losers. Hindustan Copper and Shipping Corporation of India lost ground after the government decided to defer indefinitely the closing of financial bids in these two PSUs. HPCL also lost heavily on reports that the government had frozen the marketing margins of oil companies. But it recovered once BPCL denied these rumors. ABB was one of the rare stocks up after the company said it has been awarded orders worth Rs.300 million to provide automation solutions for steel and cement plants located in China, Morocco, Turkey and Bangladesh.
On Tuesday, the BSE ended at 4,755.72. The fall came in due to the additional exposure margins imposed by NSE on 19 stocks in the derivatives segment, thus reducing arbitrage yields. Hindustan Lever (HLL), Reliance Industries and ITC contributed in a major way to the fall of the Sensex after leading early gains.
ACC was up as it reported strong Q2 results and the management even gave an optimistic future outlook. Its net profit recorded a huge jump of 444 percent and income was up by 12.4 percent.
On Wednesday, the BSE closed at 4,741.20. It was a bad day for technology stocks. Satyam Computer, Digital GlobalSoft and Wipro were all down sharply. Infosys Technologies announced that its banking business unit is partnering with Oracle Asia Pacific, a division of Oracle Corporation.
Despite this news, the stock ended the day with a loss. Bajaj Auto was subdued even though for Q2 it recorded a growth of 54 percent in net profit.
On Thursday, the BSE closed at 4648.41. Grasim Industries dropped sharply following huge selling from all sections of the market, including operators and institutions. Bongaigaon Refineries surged on reports that the company may tie-up with Reliance to restart its petrochemicals plant ICI India was also up after it announced that the government has sold off its 9.2 percent stake in the company to Asian Paints.
Hindalco slipped though the company recorded a 17.7 percent rise in net profit for Q2 which was actually more than what the market had expected. Arvind Mills slumped after it disappointed the market with a 16.37 percent drop in net profit.
The BSE 30 share sensex closed Friday at 4,757.37, down 173.16 points over the previous week’s close of 4,930.53. Satyam Computers was one of the biggest gainers of the day. Grasim Industries was up on the basis of its 58 percent rise in net profit for Q2 ended Sept. 30, 2003.
Vijaya Bank rose after the bank said its quarterly net profit had surged 125 percent. Castrol India dropped on the back of a 27 percent fall in its Q3 net profit.
Gold was at Rs.5,790/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.8,360/- per Kg.
US dollar was at Rs.45.33, pound sterling at Rs.76.78, euro at Rs.53.34, UAE dirham at Rs.12.34, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.154.22, Bahraini dinar at Rs.120.21, Saudi riyal at Rs.12.08, Qatari riyal at Rs.12.48 and Omani riyal at Rs.117.71.