Market Update 3/1/2007

The bulls were back on the bourses with vengeance reversing early losses. After opening in green the key indices lost ground on back of selling pressure in heavy weights like Bajaj Auto, ACC, Hindalco and Dr Reddy's Lab. However, a day after the Union Budget markets staged a solid come back in the second half of the session led by gains in the Technology, Banking and Telecom stocks lifted benchmark Sensex to rise over 200 points and NSE Nifty to rally nearly by 70 points.

Finally, the 30-share benchmark Sensex surged 221 points to close at 13159 hitting an intra-day low of 13193.13 and a low of 12861.35. NSE Nifty spurred 65 points to close at 3811 touching an intra-day high of 3818.75 and a low of 3718.75.

IFCI spurred by over 10% to Rs30 after Government announced that it would provide Rs13bn restructuring package to IFCI. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs30 and a low of Rs25 and recorded volumes of over 16,00,00,000 shares on NSE.

Sesa Goa fell over 7.5% to Rs1649 after the company said the government's plan to levy a tax on overseas sales of the steelmaking ingredient will lower profit. The scrip however recovered over 10% after hitting a low of 1485.

Bajaj Auto slipped over 4.5% to Rs2496 after the company's February total sales fell by 1.7% to 202212 units. The company announced that sales fell on Production Constraints. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs2644 and a low of Rs2496 and recorded volumes of over 4,00,000 shares on NSE.

Cement stocks further dropped lower after the Finance Minister announced that would impose an excise tax of 600 rupees per ton on cement sold at more than Rs190 per 50kg bag. ACC lost 3% to Rs875, India Cement has dropped 3.5% to Rs172, Gujarat Ambuja slipped further 2% to Rs113 and Grasim was down 0.8% to Rs2195.

Technology stocks ended on a firm note after getting beaten up in previous trading session. Frontline stocks Satyam Computer surged over 4% to Rs432, Wipro spurred over 4% to Rs585 and Infosys advanced 3% to Rs2140. Mphasis BFL, NIIT Ltd and Rolta were the major gainers among the Mid-Cap stocks.

Banking stocks also were among the major gainers. Heavy weight HDFC Bank surged by over 4.5% to Rs980, ICICI bank was up 3% to Rs855 and SBI added 1.3% to Rs1055. PNB, Canara bank and Union Bank were the major gainers among the Mid-Cap stocks.

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