Market pares gains in volatile trade after inflation data- Noon Report

A bout of volatility was witnessed on the bourses in afternoon trade soon after the inflation data hit the market. The market extended gains initially after the data showed the inflation was slightly lower than expectations. The market, however, shortly came off higher level. Banking stocks rallied, while IT stocks remained firm. Metal and power stocks perked up. All the sector indices on BSE were positive.

The wholesale price index rose 7.14% in the 12 months to 5 April 2008. This was slower than the previous week's annual rise of 7.41%.




Asian markets, which opened before Indian market, were mostly in green. Key indices in Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong were up 0.27% to 1.92%. However, China’s Shanghai Composite was down 1.96%.

At 12:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 249.33 points or 1.53% at 16,493.52. The Sensex gained 326.38 points at day’s high of 16,570.57, hit in the early afternoon trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty was up 66.4 points or 1.36% at 4953.70.

The market remains closed tomorrow, 18 April 2008, on account of Mahavir Jayanti.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.68% at 6,811.60 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.75% at 8,497.

The market breadth was strong: on BSE, 1922 stocks gained, 622 stocks declined and 55 stocks were unchanged.




India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 1% at Rs 2671.20.

The BSE Bankex was up 3.13% at 8,295.17. Axis Bank (up 7.40% at Rs 845), Bank of India (up 5.57% at Rs 318.30), Yes Bank (up 3.87% at Rs 171.65), Canara Bank (up 3.28% at Rs 236.50), and HDFC Bank (up 3.01% at Rs 1,345), soared.

India’s largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank rose 3.59% at Rs 84.80.

India’s second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Technologies gained 4.97% at Rs 1677.05. The stocks is on a rise since Tuesday, 15 April 2008, when the company reported 1.46% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 1249 crore on a 6.34% growth in revenue to Rs 4542 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q3 December 2007. The stock advanced 12.47% to Rs 1,599.95 on Wednesday, 16 April 2008 from Rs 1,422.45 on Friday, 11 April 2008.




Top Sensex gainers were, DLF (up 3.53% at Rs 644), Wipro (up 3.08% at Rs 461.15), Satyam Computer (up 3.03% at Rs 467.80), HDFC Bank (up 3.09% at Rs 1346) and State Bank of India (up 2.39% at Rs 1703.90).

The BSE Metal index was up 2.19% at 14,444.02. Jindal Steel & Power (up 4.41% at Rs 2020), Steel Authority of India (up 4.69% at Rs 169.75), Ispat Industries (up 3.87% at Rs 30.85), Hindalco Industries (up 3.48% at Rs 175), JSW Steel (up 3.32% at Rs 799) and Tata Steel (up 2.66% at Rs 709), jumped.

Steel and real estate firm Shree Precoated Steels rose 5% to Rs 190.95 on reports it planned to raise Rs 1000 crore from private equity funds.




The BSE Power index was up 1.51% at 3,256.31. CESC (up 4.75% at Rs 447), Power Grid Corporation of India (up 4.61% at Rs 103.15), Areva T&D (up 3.21% at Rs 1,755.30), Tata Power (up 2.41% at Rs 1,295) and Reliance Power (up 2.24% at Rs 384.20), soared.

Real estate firm Parsvnath Developers rose 3.77% at Rs 214.50 on reports the firm sold a 30% stake in a Mumbai project to foreign funds for Rs 186 crore.

Telecom provider Tata Teleservices (Maharastra) rose 5.93% at Rs 31.25 on reports the firm is planning to sell 15-30% stake to private equity (PE) investors for raising over $1 billion. The funds would be employed for the company's expansion in both CDMA and the upcoming GSM services.

Wind turbines maker Indowind Energy rose 4.51% at Rs 84.50 after it reported net profit of Rs 0.50 crore on sales of Rs 0.55 crore in the quarter ended March 2008.




Among the side counters, IG Petrochemicals (up 20% at Rs 63.20), Elgitread (India) (up 20% at Rs 25.95), STL Global (up 20% at Rs 24.20), Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals (up 9.31% at Rs 62.20), i-Flex Solutions (up 8.51% at Rs 1,242.95), Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals (up 6.03% at Rs 43.95), soared.