BOMBAY, 13 October — The Indian stock markets rallied this week, led mainly by technology stocks. More good news was that India’s tax receipts grew a healthy 17 percent to Rs.906.48 billion in the first half of the current financial year beginning in April.
On Monday, the BSE closed at 2,952.78. Value buying was seen in select old economy stocks such as Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum after recent falls. Cement pivotals ACC and L & T moved up on talks that the cement makers had raised prices in Mumbai. Hero Honda Motor, Telco and Bajaj Auto also gained ground. Ranbaxy Labs slipped after Canadian drugmaker Apotex was granted US Food and Drugs Administration approval to sell the generic version of GlaxoSmithkline’s antibiotic Ceftin in tablet form.
VSNL and Bharti Tele-Ventures were down after the government decided to keep the FDI ceiling in the telecom sector at 49 percent, overruling the proposal to hike it to 74 percent. On Tuesday, the BSE closed at 2,973.35. Infosys, Satyam and HCL Tech were all among the big gainers.
Media major Zee Telefilms was also up. Its strategy for positioning its prime time and new programming initiative is yielding results and catching attention. Nalco rose on reports that the government has short-listed 15 prospective bidders.
On Wednesday the BSE closed at 2,956.89. The undertone of the market remained somewhat cautious amid the uncertainty over the outcome of the US-Iraq standoff and sustained selling pressure from FIIs. They have pulled out Rs.4.41 billion from the bourses so far in October 2002. Mastek was down despite having announced a 271 percent rise in net profit for quarter ended Sept. 30. Exide Industries was up after it posted a 17.79 percent rise in net profit for the quarter. Snowcem was up after it signed an agreement with Berger Paints to buy the former’s paints division.
Thursday was Infosys Day. The company declared better than expected results for the first quarter. Net profit for the quarter was up 12.4 percent to Rs.2.26 billion. The BSE closed at 2,969.49.
HDFC which was included in the BSE Sensex was up after the company said it would consider an issue of bonus shares at its forthcoming board meeting on Oct.17. Bajaj Auto rose on reports that the company plans to sell 1.5 million units this year, up from last year’s 1.36 million.
Telco ended higher on news that its total vehicle sales in the six-month period ended September 2002 rose by 25.4 percent from a year ago to 92,207 units.
On Friday the BSE closed at 2,995.77. Top gainers on the Sensex were Satyam, Infosys and Zee. While the top losers on the Sensex were Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and Grasim. Hughes Software spurted after the company, for Q2 posted a 31.7 percent rise in net profit to Rs.83 million. Satyam Computer sprang forth on hopes of an improved performance when the company announces quarterly results on Oct. 23. Ahmednagar Forgings was locked at 10 percent upper limit of the circuit breaker on Friday, following reports that Amtek Auto will acquire the remaining 30.72 percent stake of the company’s promoters ICICI Bank rose 2.33 percent to Rs.138.25 after the bank’s MD said that its retail finance assets was witnessing robust growth.
Gold was at Rs.5240/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.7,730/- per Kg.
US dollar was at Rs.48.32, pound sterling at Rs.75.34, euro at Rs.47.58, UAE dirham at Rs. 13.14, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.159.52, Bahraini dinar at Rs.128.83, Saudi riyal at Rs.12.87, Qatari riyal at Rs.13.25 and Omani riyal at Rs. 125.24.
