Market pares gains

The market pared most of its earlier gains in early afternoon trade. It had edged lower at the onset of the trading session tracking subdued-to-weak trend in Asian markets before bouncing back shortly. Power and consumer durables stocks rose. FMCG stocks declined. Capital goods stocks rose on reports Finance Minister P Chidambaram met representatives from auto and capital goods industries to discuss industrial slowdown after recent weak Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers.

HDFC and Bharat Heavy Electricals were major gainers from Sensex pack. The market breadth was strong. Buying was witnessed in select mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

At 12:21 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 25.27 points or 0.15% at 15,602.80. At the day’s high of 15,749.69, Sensex gained 162.07 points in mid-morning trade. At the day’s low of 15,464.72, Sensex lost 122.9 points in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was down 7.65 points or 0.16% at 4,702.

The market breadth was strong: on BSE 1657 shares advanced as compared to 697 that declined. 65 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index up 1.08% to Rs 6,451.91 and BSE Small-Cap index up 1.33% to 7,918.05.

India's biggest FMCG firm by sales Hindustan Unilever (HUL) declined 1.96% to Rs 245.05. It has reportedly cut prices of three of its soap brands—Lux, Hamam and Rexona. The price reduction by HUL is being termed as a post-budget measure to please consumers, the reports added.

REI Agro (down 1.66% to Rs 1,410) and ITC (down 1.22% to Rs 205.75) edged lower.

Capital goods stocks rose. Larsen & Toubro (up 2.04% to Rs 2,633.90), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 2.3% to Rs 1,752.10) and Suzlon Energy (up 1.14% to Rs 293.05) edged higher. As per reports, the finance ministry is looking at various measures to provide a boost to the capital goods sector, which witnessed a sharp slowdown in growth earlier this year. Finance Minister P Chidambaram today held a meeting with chief executives of several leading public sector and private companies in the sector including the likes of NPTC, Bhel, BEML and L&T among others. In January this year, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers showed a significant slowdown in the capital goods sector, with growth in the sector falling sharply from over 16% in December 2007, to just 2.1% in January 2008.

Power stocks rose. Reliance Power (up 1.86% to Rs 357.90), Reliance Energy (up 1.66% to Rs 1,169.50), NTPC (up 0.4% to Rs 187.20), Tata Power Company (up 1.86% to Rs 1,155) edged higher. The Finance Ministry has cleared a restructured Rs 50,000-crore accelerated power development and reforms programme (APDRP), which would soon be sent to the cabinet for approval.

Consumer durables stocks rose. Rajesh Exports (up 6.22% to Rs 87.05), Titan Industries (up 0.18% to Rs 1,034) and Videocon Industries (up 0.36% to Rs 320.15) edged hihger.

India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 0.24% to Rs 2,386.30.

Jaiprakash Associates (down 1.44% to Rs 218.50), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 1.48% to Rs 463.80), Grasim Industries (down 1.19% to Rs 2,530), Satyam Computer Services (down 1.28% to Rs 423.90), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.65% to Rs 731.90), Bharti Airtel ( down 0.82% to Rs 822) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

HDFC (up 3.75% to Rs 2,393), Ambuja Cements (up 1.65% to Rs 120), Infosys (up 1.03% to Rs 1,476.30), DLF (up 0.45% to Rs 618.40), Cipla (up 1.17% to Rs 214.50) and ICICI Bank (up 0.34% to Rs 816) edged higher from Sensex pack.

India’s largest commercial bank State Bank of India was down 0.11% to Rs 1,675.10. It has reportedly shortlisted three potential partners, including Insurance Australia Group, for a general insurance venture. The other two shortlisted partners are a German firm and a US-based firm, the reports suggested.

Unity Infraprojects rose 0.99% to Rs 571.20 after company received two orders worth Rs 221.85 crore.