Mumbai, Oct 13: The markets seem to have almost put behind the developments across the border. After a knee jerk reaction in the markets on Wednesday morning, which saw the Sensex open 100 points down, players soon set the fears aside and gradually, as buying continued in select cement, IT and pharma stocks, the benchmark indices gained substantially and closed mixed. While the BSE Sensex closed 26.53 points down, the S&P CNX Nifty on the NSE closed with a net gain of 12.45 points. For the next few days, market players expect sideways movement. However, there are a few concerns with which the players are not very comfortable with.Thanks to a drastic change in the already fluid political situation in Pakistan - which raised some initial fears of an escalation of problems along the border - the markets opened with a huge downward gap on Wednesday. Within five minutes of opening, the Sensex declined to a low of 4922, down 135 points from the previous close of 5057 points. According to technical analysts, the downward resistance was at 4920 points.
However, in the absence of sustained selling pressure, the Sensex then showed a rally of 141 points from the low. The recovery was maintained a major part of the day but during the last half an hour, huge selling took place which dragged the Sensex down. It closed at 5030.79 points, showing a net fall of 26.53 points over its previous close.
The S&P CNX Nifty on the NSE on the other hand, had opened higher at 1485.45 points on the first day of its new account. During the day, it hovered between 1510.50 and 1466 and closed at 1496.30 against its Tuesday close of 1483.85 points. According to Chirag Sanghvi at Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediaries, there are three probable points of concerns which the market is closely monitoring. ``The situation in Pakistan, the huge outstanding position and the not-so regular flow of FII funds are the three factors which the market is keeping tab of very closely'', says Sanghvi. And for Thursday's trading, the brokers are expecting sideways movement, as UTI and other institutions were believed to be giving buying support to the market at lower levels.
On Wednesday, stocks from the pharma and software sectors remained major attraction for investors. A large number of pharma stocks showed handsome gains. In the specified list, Ranbaxy Lab led the rally. The counter witnessed highest volume on the BSE, and managed to hit the upper circuit on the NSE. Glaxo, Nicholas Piramal, Wockhardt, Sun Pharma, and Dr Reddy's Lab also recorded handsome gains. The side counters like Kopran, Orchid Chemicals, Lupin Labs, Searle, Unichem Labs, Alpha Drugs, Neuland Labs, Fulford, JB Chemicals and Morepan Labs were other major gainers in the pharma sector.
In the software segment, Pentafour Software led the rally. Although Himchal Futuristic, and Aptech were first to hit the upper band in the specified list, Satyam Computers, Silverline, Rolta, Tata Elxsi, Crest Communications, DSQ Software, and Mastek also recorded handsome gains. The heavyweights like Infosys, and NIIT, however, showed a negative close which also had its impact on the Sensex close.
Among the pivotals, HLL, Tisco, and SBI too showed a negative close. Cements stocks showed firm trend but failed to show major gains. ACC, Gujarat Ambuja and L&T feature in this list.
With inputs from Deepak Singh Tanwar
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.