The Hindu Business Line : Markets resume southward journey

THE gains registered by the markets during Wednesday's trade proved to be just a temporary blip on the radar screen and markets resumed their by-now-familiar southward journey, triggered by a combination of disappointing results declaration by tech major Wipro and selling in other frontline Sensex stocks such as Hindustan Lever, Infosys, Satyam Computer, ITC and Reliance.

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended the day at 2984.50 points, lower by 47.82 points compared to its close on Wednesday.

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The Nifty, on which Wipro carries a significant weightage, ended with a loss of 17.95 points to close at 940.7 points.

The Sensex touched a low of 2971.94 points and scaled a peak of 3011.92 points on a day when declines outpaced gainers by a ratio of 16 to 10, indicative of a bearish trend. Trading volumes on the BSE remained rather thin at 5.16 crore shares.

Tech major Wipro declared its annual result that was perceived by the market as not meeting expectations. As a result, the stock shed Rs 79.55 to end at Rs 884.40, after having touched an intra-day low of Rs 825. Trading volumes of 8.6 lakh shares were witnessed on the counter. For the quarter ended March 2003, the company reported a net profit of Rs 213.6 crore (excluding extra-ordinary items) compared to Rs 220.6 crore for the same period in the previous year.

Selling pressure was also seen in key Sensex stocks that were responsible for propping up the index during Wednesday's trade. Among tech stocks, Infosys Technologies lost Rs 59.65 to end at Rs 2,965.75, while Satyam Computer slipped by Rs 13.15 to finish at Rs 144.20 on the back of trading volumes of about 63 lakh shares.

FMCG major Hindustan Lever, which posted gains on Wednesday after having declared results that met market expectations, saw its price drop by Rs 4.90 to end at Rs 142.85 on trading volumes of about 7 lakh shares. Likewise, stocks such as ITC and State Bank of India that moved up during Wednesday's trade also moved lower to end in negative territory. Reliance too ended the day lower by Rs 5.50 at Rs 278.10 on trading volumes of 21.5 lakh shares.

Value buying was seen in Hindalco that saw the stock price perk up by Rs 9.45 to close at Rs 602.35. Pharma stocks with the exception of Dr.Reddy's ended the day lower, as did automobile stocks such as Bajaj Auto and Hero Honda.

Selective buying interest was seen in counters such as Moser Baer and BPCL. The former rose by Rs 13.40 to end at Rs 266.95 on volumes of 1.55 lakh shares. About 32,000 shares of the stock were traded during Wednesday's trade. BPCL also moved up by Rs 4.40 to end at Rs 231.35 on volumes of 1.56 lakh shares.

Cosmo Films was another stock that was in the limelight. The company declared impressive results for the year ending March 2003, reporting a net profit of Rs 40 crore compared to a net profit of Rs 17.6 crore for the year ending March 2002. The stock surged by Rs 6.40 to end at Rs 71.1 on volumes of 80,000 shares.

Other companies that declared results on Thursday included MRF and LML. While MRF shed Rs 58.45 to close at Rs 1008.05, LML rode up by Rs 1.55 to end at Rs 28.70.

Second-rung IT stocks such as Digital Global, Mastek and Geometric Software ended the day lower, even as i-flex Solutions gained Rs 7.35 to end at Rs 851.2.

Markets will remain closed for trade on Friday on account of Good Friday and trading will resume on Monday, April 21.

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