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G. Madhan

DESPITE opening about 42 points lower than the last week's closing, the benchmark BSE Sensex ended the first day of the week in the positive territory. The 30-stock index was up 9.65 points (0.25 per cent) on Monday.

The index opened at 3842.14 points and closed at 3893.41 points. It reached an intra-day high of 3915.9 points and a low of 3842.14 points witnessing an intra-day swing of 73.76 points.

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The markets opened on a jittery note following the SEBI order barring Mr Samir Arora, Chief Investment Officer of Alliance Capital Mutual Fund, on allegations of insider trading.

In the Sensex, 16 stocks advanced while 14 declined. Of the 2141 stocks traded in the BSE, 1241 stocks advanced, 822 stocks declined, while 78 remained unchanged.

Among the index heavyweights, Reliance Industries and Infosys Technologies lost ground while Hindustan Lever, State Bank of India and ITC ended the day in the positive territory.

The broad-based 50-stock NSE CNX Nifty also rose by 0.83 per cent to 1232.85 points.

The stock price of Reliance Industries fell by 0.6 per cent to Rs 361.50, while Infosys Technologies dropped 2.3 per cent to Rs 3,476.05.

On the other hand, Hindustan Lever gained 1.9 per cent to Rs 171.35, State Bank of India rose by 2.5 per cent to Rs 432.80.

Steel stocks were in the limelight on Monday on an optimistic price and profitability outlook for the sector. The stock price of Steel Authority of India Ltd surged 18.5 per cent to Rs 31.65 accompanied by trading volumes of about two-crore shares.

The stock price of Tata Iron & Steel also rose 1.8 per cent on trading volumes of 37.4 lakh shares. Essar Steel was up 8.9 per cent to Rs 22.05 on accompanying volumes of 71.8 lakh shares.

Other steel stocks that gained ground include Jindal Vijaynagar (10.2 per cent) and Jindal Iron & Steel (1.8 per cent).

The shipping stocks also witnessed heightened activity on Monday. The stock price of Essar Shipping appreciated 9.1 per cent to Rs 14.98 accompanied by volumes of 32.9 lakh shares. GE Shipping also rose 12.5 per cent to Rs 68.95 on trading volumes of 17.8 lakh shares.

The State-owned Shipping Corporation of India also ended the day in the positive territory. The stock was up 6.9 per cent to Rs 87.55 accompanying volumes of 18.5 lakh shares.

Other PSUs that ended the day in the positive zone include ONGC (four per cent), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (three per cent) and National Aluminium (2.1 per cent). However, Hindustan Petroleum ended the day on a negative note.

Watch-maker,Titan Industries witnessed a sharp rise in its stock price on Monday. The stock was up 17.1 per cent to Rs 80.45 on trading volumes of 7.2 lakh shares.

The other major stocks, which witnessed huge trading volumes, were Arvind Remedies, IFCI, Mangalore Refineries, Maruti Udyog and Himachal Futuristic.

The stock of Alka India also witnessed huge volumes (about 1.3 crore shares), while its stock price rose by 19.8 per cent to Rs 2.6. The stock has been uptrend ever since it announced its financial results two weeks ago.

Information Technology stocks fell on Monday. Mastek, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Aftek Infosys and KPIT Infosys lost ground.

Digital GlobalSoft, also fell by 2.6 per cent to Rs 465.45.

The stock came under selling pressure despite the announcement made by the company that there was no flow of inside information which allegedly helped Mr Samir Arora to exit the stock ahead of the crash in the Digital stock, just before the announcement of the Digital-HP-ISO merger.

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