Market Update 3/12/2007

Markets started quiet but picked up steam but ended the day with marginal gains, despite Asian markets ending significantly higher. The major draggers being cement stocks namely Gujarat Ambuja, ACC and Grasim and biggies like ITC.

Capital goods, auto and pharma stocks saw select buying interest. New listing C&C, Mudra ended well. Idea saw trades with good volume and Mindtree was up 20% with significant volume. Midcap IT was very active throughout the day. Oil stocks held out their gains. Advance decline number was in favour of advances largely because of smallcaps. Overall it was a rangebound movement with low volumes.

Sensex closed up 17.64 points or 0.14% at 12902.63, and the Nifty up 16.60 points or 0.45% at 3734.6.

About 1508 shares have advanced, 999 shares declined, and 58 shares are unchanged.

The BSE Midcap Index ended at 5,276.50 up 48.06 points or 0.92%.

The BSE Smallcap Index ended at 6,317.65 up 66.6 points or 1.07%.

The BSE Bankex was up 0.3% at 6,469.41. Centurion BoP, Oriental Bank, Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank, Canara Bank, moved upwards.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 1.7% at 8,745.90. Gammon India, Crompton Greave, Aban Offshore, ABB, HEG closed higher.

The BSE Health Care Index was up 0.8% at 3,490.40. Sun Pharma, Glenmark, Biocon, Matrix Lab, Novartis India closed higher.

The BSE Auto Index closed at 4,898.08 up 1.12%. Bharat Forge, Tube Investment, Escorts, TVS Motor, Amtek Auto, Ashok Leyland surged.

The BSE Metal Index gained 0.6% to close at 8,141.08. Welspun Guj, Guj NRE Coke, Mah Seamless, Jindal Steel, NALCO advanced.

The BSE IT Index gained 0.6% at 5,002.78. TCS, HCL Tech, Moser Baer, Wipro, Hexaware Tech advanced.

BSE Oil and Gas Index gained 0.5% to close at 6,147.03. HPCL, IOC, Petronet LNG, BPCL, MRPL closed in green.

The BSE FMCG Index lost 1.4% at 1,665.03. ITC, Dabur India, United Spirits were among the losers.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 8324.98 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 26751.37 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 3400.45 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 38476.8 crore.

On the macroecoomic front, January industrial output numbers came in strong.

Markets Today:

• Sensex ends up 17 points at 12,902, Nifty up 16 points at 3734
• Midcaps stocks outperform broader indices, CNX Midcap index up 0.8% at 4693
• BSE Capital Good & Auto indices up 1% each
• Select recent listings hog limelight, Mindtree Consulting hits 20% upper circuit at Rs 780
• Total turnover at Rs 38,476.8 cr vs Rs 48901.15 cr on Friday