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Suresh Parthasarathy

In a highly volatile trading session on the last trading day of the week, markets closed weak. Taking cues from the peers around the globe the markets opened in red. Satyam Computer, which came out with results matching the street expectation, added the woe to the markets by way of lowering future guidance. The Sensex went on to shed close to 150 points in the early trading session. Thanks to buying support at lower levels markets turned green, however last- hour selling saw the Sensex finally closed by losing 35.04 points to 14,182.71.There is no respite in mid and small-cap segment too. The broader markets Nifty shed 18.9 points to 4,090.15.

The breadth of the markets clearly skewed towards declines. Advances to declines ratio favoured the latter with 1:1.6. All the sectoral indices ended the day in red barring banks and FMCG.

Buzzing Stocks

Biocon, which gained 10 per cent on Thursday on the back of better result, added another 2.75 per cent on Friday. Kotak Mahindra Bank surged 4.5 per cent on the back of news that the company expects better revenue from the sale of yellow metal. Other prominent gainers on the BSE were the recently listed Ess Dee Aluminium, Geodesic Information, Reliance Communication, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Bharti Airtel and Grasim Industries.

Click here for table

Sector Focus

FMCG stocks managed to go other way on a highly volatile day. Nestle led the pack by adding Rs 38 to Rs 1,123.1, which was followed by ITC, Procter and Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer and United Breweries. Dabur, which had a good time during Thursday's trading, fails to repeat the performance on Friday. The stock shed value to tow the general market mood along with Bata and Colgate Palmolive.

In the banking space, except for the private players ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rest of the stocks shed value to the previous close.

Software stocks which was let down by Satyam Computer came in for heavy selling. Tech Mahindra, which had good run from the listing, bore the burnt of the markets. Wipro, Financial Technologies and Infosys shed value. The stock that bucked the trend to close in green was HCL Technologies and Patni Computers.

Auto was in reverse gear. Mahindra & Mahindra lost Rs 32 to Rs 934. Punjab Tractors, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motors and Cummins were all on the losing side on Friday. Impressive performance by Ranbaxy fails to support the pharma sector. Nicholas Piramal, Lupin and Cipla shed the value to the previous close. Biocon and Glenmark Pharma stocks tide other way to close in green.

Stock Specific Action

Aurobindo Pharma has announced that the company has received one more approval from the USFDA for Amoxicillin tablets for oral suspension 200mg and 400 mg. This suspension is beta-lactam antibiotic used often in treating respiratory infections. However the stock shed 3.66 per cent.

Deccan Chronicle Holdings has informed that the board of directors of the company approved the sub-division of equity shares of Rs 10 each into 5 equity shares of Rs 2 each subject to shareholders approval. The board also declared an interim dividend of 50 per cent for FY 2006-2007.

Gainers and Losers

MTNL, Zee Telefilms, Reliance Industries, ING Vysya Bank, Chennai Petroleum and Polaris were the prominent gainers in Nifty. Siemens, ONGC, IDFC, Vijaya Bank and Moser Baer were among the losers.

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