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Satyam, HCL escape web of losers

A. Srikanth

THE markets continued to be bogged down during the day as concerns over the weakening rupee and the shaky economic picture intensified, further affecting an already declining investor sentiment.

The Sensex closed the day at 4,260.88 with a marginal gain of 7.19 points. The advance/decline ratio continued to remain lacklustre as the losers (702) overwhelmed the gainers (566) by a big margin.

The rupee further weakened during the day, touching a record low of Rs. 45.32 from the previous day's close of 45.15/16. Deteriorating trade deficit, rising oil imports and FIIs outflow were the factors which have been affecting market sentiment. The tra de deficit for the first quarter of this fiscal rose by 25 per cent to $2.98 billions on the back of a rise in exports by 27.65 per cent to $10.19 billions and a 94.26 per cent increase in oil imports.

The information technology sector suffered further setbacks during the day as major stocks such as Infosys Technologies, Hughes Software, NIIT, Aftek Infosys and VisualSoft lost significant value.

The share price of Infosys fell by Rs. 137.90 to close at Rs. 6,646.90. Traded volumes in the stock rose from 3.43 lakh shares to 4.12 lakh shares. The fall in the stock has to be seen in the light of the fact that the company's ADR has suffered overnigh t at the Nasdaq, falling by $12.05 to close at 120 5/8.

The share price of NIIT declined by Rs. 19.40 to close at Rs. 1,597.10 as the number of shares that were traded during the day went down from 2.13 lakh shares to 1.56 lakh shares.

While VisualSoft fell by Rs. 179.05 to close at Rs. 4,320.95, Hughes Software lost Rs. 43.30 to end at Rs. 2,686.90.

However Satyam Computer, HCL Technologies and Leading Edge bucked the trend, posting significant gains during the day.

The share price of Satyam rose by Rs. 56.20 to close at Rs. 2,463.10 as the traded volumes fell from 15.91 lakh shares to 13.94 shares.

The HCL Technologies' stock went up by Rs. 22.40 to end the day at Rs. 987.95. The traded volumes, however, fell from 55,104 shares to 45,163 shares.

There was some buying interest among cement stocks with the share prices of Gujarat Ambuja Cement, L&T and Madras Cements rising during the day.

While Gujarat Ambuja Cements rose by Rs. 23.10 to close at Rs. 224.15, L&T went up by Rs. 11.25 to end the day at Rs. 209.05.

Other major gainers for the day include MICO, SmithKline Consumer, Hindalco, Wockhardt and Grasim.

The share price of Hindalco went up by Rs. 24.85 to close at Rs. 844.25 on the back of an increase in traded volumes from 19,789 shares to 1.07 lakh shares. The uptrend in the stock has to be viewed in the light of the fact that the company has posted a superior first quarter performance. For the quarter ended June 2000, while sales has gone up by 18 per cent to Rs. 565.20 crores, the post-tax earnings have jumped by 27.50 per cent to Rs. 175.80 crores. The exports of the company has improved by 35.40 p er cent to Rs. 88 crores.

The share price of Smithkline Consumer went up by Rs. 56.15 to finish the day at Rs. 527.55 as traded volumes shot up from 62,489 shares to 1.04 lakh shares.

The Smithkline Pharma stock continued to rise during the day on the back of the impending merger with Glaxo India. The share price of the company went up by Rs. 4.80 to close at Rs. 173.55 as the number of shares that were exchanged for the day rose from 2.05 lakh shares to 2.99 lakh shares.

The Burroughs Wellcome stock too rose on the prospects of a merger with Glaxo. The share price of the company rose by Rs. 11.40 to close at Rs. 341.55 as the trading volumes went up from 14,126 shares to 21,594 shares.

Apart from the major stocks in the information technology sector, other losers for the day include Sterlite Industries, Siemens, Indian Oil, Widia India, Bajaj Auto, Gujarat Gas, Dabur India, PSI Data Systems and Aurobindo Pharma.