BOMBAY, 31 March — The Indian stock markets this week were in the mood for a long spell of holiday. The markets were closed for trading on Monday and then again on Friday.
On Tuesday, there was consistent selling pressure, led mainly by tech stocks, pulling down the BSE Sensex by 49.62 points to settle below the 3,500-mark at 3,466.29. The sentiment remained bearish on account of the political turmoil as well.
Infosys Technologies was down at Rs.3,669.90 amid fears that it might issue a lower guidance of around 15 percent-20 percent growth for the Q1 of FY 2003, while announcing its Q4 results for FY 2002. Same was true for Satyam Computers and HCL Technologies.
VSNL saw some buying following the rumors that the initial public offering of Intelsat, in which the company owns 5.4 percent stake, is likely to unlock value of around Rs.24.00 billion-25.00 billion for the company. Tips Industries lost ground on reports that it had lost a music contract from Mukta Arts to Universal Music. Pharma stock Wockhardt was up at Rs.565.95 after it announced that it had bought out German partner Rhein Biotech’s stake in the 50:50 joint venture to make the Hepatitis-B vaccine.
Chennai Petroleum saw sustained buying, following the reports that Indian Oil is examining options of merging its subsidiaries (CPL and Bongaigaon Refineries) to consolidate its position in the de-regulated oil market. Global Trust Bank gained ground on reports that ABN Amro bank had expressed its interest in the Hyderabad-based private sector bank.
The markets were in a see-saw mode on Wednesday. It started the day on a steady note but soon came down following selling pressure. Nevertheless, the loss was modest at 7.21 points and the BSE ended at 3,459.08. Tata Steel was down at Rs.96.80. On the other hand, buying was seen in private sector auto major, Telco which closed the day at Rs.123.35.
There were other Tata companies in the news too. Tata Infotech and Tata Elxsi attracted fresh buying as talks of a merger between the Tata group infotech companies resurfaced.
IT stock NIIT was up following its acquisition of the US-based Osprey Systems, a privately held solutions provider which is expected to generate $35 million in revenue over the next three years.
Refinery stocks like ONGC, BPCL, Indian Oil, Chennai Petroleum and Kochi Refineries were very much in the limelight as market punters expect these companies to have improved profitability following the dismantling of the administered pricing mechanism (APM) from April 1.
Two-three wheeler company, Maharashtra Scooters was down at Rs.47.10 on reports that Bajaj Auto offered to pick up the Maharashtra government’s 27 percent stake in the company at Rs.50 per share.
And Thursday was the last day of trading of the financial year 2001-02. It ended the day on a cautious note with last-minute selling pressure erasing the better part of its early gains. The BSE yet managed to snap off its loss making streak and ended the day with a marginal gain of 10.27 points at 3,469.35. Domestic mutual funds were the major buyers of the day inorder to prop up the net asset values (NAVs) of their various schemes. ICICI was major newsmaker of the day following reports that Prudential, the group’s partner in the life insurance and asset management businesses, was interested in buying a part of the former’s holding in the bank, which will be up for sale through a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
State Bank of India came down to Rs.219.80 on selling pressure despite the fact that it had cut the prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 11 percent from April 1. The bank also cut interest rate on deposits by 25-75 basis points across various maturities. State owned Hindustan Zinc was up at Rs.36.15 after it announced its sale to Sterlite Industries for Rs.4.45 billion which was higher than the reserve price of Rs.3.54 billion.
For the coming days, with the beginning of the new accounting year, operators are likely to take fresh positions in select Old Economy stocks and IT stocks, however, will wait for the Q4 results and future guidance from the leaders like Infosys, Wipro and Satyam.
Gold was at Rs.5,010/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.7,895/- per Kg.
US dollar vis-a-vis Indian rupee was at Rs.48.80, pound sterling at Rs.69.47, euro at Rs. 42.50, UAE dirham at Rs.13.28, Kuwait dinar at Rs.158.70, Bahrain dinar at Rs.129.42, Saudi riyal at Rs.13.01, Qatar riyal at Rs.13.40 and Oman riyal at Rs.126.74.
