• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

TVS-Suzuki skids on probable Suzuki exit

Suresh Krishnamurthy

THE firm trend in Asian markets such as Hong Kong found its echo in the domestic markets as stock prices recovered from their fall on Tuesday. Pivotals firmed up on Wednesday to help the Sensex end the day with gains. Stocks such as Reliance, Infosys, SB I and Cipla contributed the most to the rise of the Sensex.

The Sensex closed 1.91 per cent higher at 2,667.34. At NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty gained 1.43 per cent to close at 873.70. The broadbased S&P CNX 500 gained 2.17 per cent reflecting the gains in the stock prices of technology shares such as Wipro.

The Nifty Junior, however, shed value during the day. It ended down by 0.28 per cent. The decline in stock prices of Sun Pharma, Pfizer, Cadbury and banking stocks such as Bank of Baroda and Corporation Bank pulled the index down.

At BSE, trading turnover dipped to Rs 1,094 crore from Tuesday's volumes of Rs 1,214.95 crore. `A' group stocks accounted for 98 per cent of the day's trading volumes. Advancing shares at 558 outnumbered declining shares at 530 shares. However, in the in dex, 21 stocks advanced, while 8 declined. In addition, trading volumes in advancing shares accounted for Rs 848 crore or around 77 per cent of the day's volumes.

During the day, 64 stocks hit the upper circuit, while 74 stocks hit the lower circuit. However, in the `A' group, just one stock each hit the upper and lower circuit. Reliance hit the circuit limit of 10 per cent on the upside, while TVS-Suzuki hit the 20 per cent lower circuit limit. Other prominent stocks to hit the upper circuit filter limit were Goodyear India and Forbes Gokak.

Prominent losers for the day included stocks such as HCL Technologies and TVS-Suzuki.

An expectation of profit-warning appears to have given the upper hand to the bears in the HCL Technologies counter and it touched a new low during the day. However, the announcement of acquisition of 51 per cent stake in a fairly large IT company, Deutsc he Software, saw buyers return to the counter. The stock still closed 17.60 per cent lower. The two-way price movement attracted trading interest and the stock of HCL Technologies topped the volumes chart.

In the case of TVS-Suzuki, the announcement that the board of directors of the company would consider a possible exit of Suzuki from the joint venture was enough to send the stock crashing down. The stock ended the day 20 per cent lower. Other prominent losers for the day include a few from the banking sector such as ICICI, HDFC, Bank of Baroda and Oriental Bank.

Stocks that firmed up during the day included that of Hinduja TMT and OCL India. The stock of Hinduja TMT gained in the backdrop of an announcement that the company had picked up a large-sized call-centre order. In the case of OCL India, a buyback offer at a price of Rs 80 per share perked up proceedings. Other prominent gainers for the day included stocks such as Wipro, CMC and Digital Globalsoft. The stock of HPCL continued to rise in the wake of the soft crude oil prices.

Stocks that touched a new low at NSE included Bank of Baroda, Escorts, HCL Infosystems, HCL Technologies, Hughes Software, M&M, Mastek, Pentamedia Graphics, PSI Data Systems, SmithklineBeecham Pharma and Tata Telecom. Some of the software stocks such as Hughes Software, however, ended the day with gains. Hughes Software, in fact, gained the most among the `A' group stocks. At BSE, stocks such as Indian Hotels, SSI and Berger Paints too touched a new low.