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G. Madhan

THE 30-stock BSE Sensex moved in a narrow band and ended marginally higher on Tuesday. Expectations of a market-friendly Budget continue to induce the positive sentiments.

While the movement among Index heavyweights was a mixed bag, public sector unit (PSU) stocks and bank stocks witnessed strong buying activity. Information technology stocks on the other hand witnessed profit booking. At the close of trading, the Sensex was up by 6.64 points (0.2 per cent) to 3289.09 points. Gainers outnumbered losers 712 to 582 in an aggregate trade of 7.65 crore shares, up from Monday's 6.8 crore shares.

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The National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty was also up 1.1 points (0.1 per cent) to 1059.30 points.

Among the Index heavyweights, the stock price of Infosys Technologies and Reliance Industries went down. However, Hindustan Lever and ITC managed to witness an upward trend. HLL rose 1.9 per cent to Rs 167.75, on accompanying volumes of 3.09 lakh shares. ITC went up 0.8 per cent to Rs 640, with traded volumes of 25,747 shares.

State-owned banks rallied on hopes that the Government would raise the foreign holding limit. State Bank of India went up for the second day in a row, by 0.4 per cent to Rs 309.5 on accompanying volumes of 15.8 lakh shares. Punjab National Bank rose 3.7 per cent to Rs 84.65 on accompanying volumes of 9.7 lakh shares. Other banks that moved into positive territory include Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank and Allahabad Bank.

Major PSUs too ended the day in positive territory. Steel Authority of India witnessed a significant jump in volumes and went up Rs 0.80 to Rs 11. About 53.6 lakh shares were traded in the counter. State-owned oil refinery majors Hindustan Petroluem and Bharat Petroleum surged for the second day in a row on Tuesday. HPCL surged 2.6 per cent to Rs 326.50 on accompanying volumes of 22.7 lakh shares. BPCL was up 2.4 per cent at Rs 218.45, with traded volumes of 5.45 lakh shares. Shipping Corporation of India and National Aluminium also ended the day on a positive note. However, Indian Oil Corporation and Engineers India ended the day in negative territory.

Information Technology counters witnessed profit booking on Tuesday. The stock price of Satyam Computer fell 1.3 per cent to Rs 224.75 on accompanying volumes of 38.37 lakh shares. Digital GlobalSoft was down by 1.5 per cent to Rs 607.20, with traded volumes of 19.2 lakh shares. Wipro was down by 0.9 per cent to Rs 1,433.80 on accompanying volumes of 81,445 shares, down from Monday's 1.08 lakh shares.

Mid-sized software companies also ended the day in negative territory. Silverline, Hexaware Technologies, VisualSoft, Mastek, Geometric Software and Hughes Software were among the losers.

Auto stocks remained a mixed bag on Tuesday. The stock price of Hero Honda rose 2.4 per cent to Rs 218.05 on accompanying volumes of 6.31 lakh shares. The company has posted a 22-per cent jump in motorcycle sales for January 2003. TVS Motor was also up 1.5 per cent to Rs 512.5, with traded volumes of 64,745 shares. However, Bajaj Auto fell 0.7 per cent to Rs 519 on accompanying volumes 34,138 shares. Mahindra & Mahindra also fell one per cent to Rs 101 with traded volumes of 1.3 lakh shares.

Cement major Gujarat Ambuja Cements rose 1.6 per cent to Rs 156.90 on accompanying volumes of 1.3 lakh shares. However, ACC fell 3.5 per cent to Rs 152.70, with traded volumes of 6.49 lakh shares. Media major Zee Telefilms was also among the losers. The stock dropped 3.2 per cent to Rs 86.05 with traded volumes of 11.42 lakh shares.

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