Sensex ends with modest gains at 13,928.33

Mumbai, Apr 23: The Sensex today settled at 13,928.33 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, registering a nominal gain of 30.92 points as caution prevailed ahead of the Central Bank's monetary policy tomorrow.

It had touched an intra-day high of 14,046.52 and a low of 13,879.39 points amidst high volatility throughout the day.

Among the broader markets, the Nifty Index gained very marginally by just 1.55 points or 0.04 per cent at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and closed at 4,085.10 from it's previous close of 4,083.55 points.

At the BSE, the market-breadth, which measures the overall health of the market, was negative, as selling emerged for smallcap and mid-cap shares, after the initial momentum. 1,387 scrips declined compared to 1,177 that advanced, while a total of 83 stocks remained unchanged. The total turnover here was unusually high compared to that in the previous few sessions, thanks to a number of block deals that were executed in a lot of counters, market analysts observed.

Three massive block deals of 93.21 lakh shares each, struck in the Gujarat Ambuja Cements (GACL) counter, at an average Rs 116.05 per share on BSE were a salient feature of opening trade. The stock was down 0.61 per cent to Rs 114.75, on total volumes of 3.03 crore shares. Undoubtedly, it was the top-traded counter on BSE with a turnover of Rs 352.55 crore.

Phoenix Mills was the fourth most-traded counter here with a turnover of Rs 119.95 crore. Two block deals of 2.43 lakh shares were executed, at an average Rs 1,581 per share in early trade.

A block deal of 10.20 lakh shares was also struck in the Cairn India counter, at Rs 132 per share.

As a result of these block deals, the total turnover clocked a neat Rs 3287 crore on BSE, market pundits said adding that among the 30-Sensex pack, 16 declined while the rest advanced. Tata Steel surged 4.71 per cent to Rs 559.50, on a high volume of 22.96 lakh shares, and was the top-gainer. It had advanced to a high of Rs 560, in intra-day trade.

REL (up 2.10 per cent to Rs 521.75), Hindalco (up 0.80 per cent to Rs 147.85) and Satyam Computers (up 0.85 per cent to Rs 480.50) were the other gainers.

Reliance Communications advanced 1.62 per cent to Rs 463.80, on expectations of strong earnings growth, driven by a robust rise in the subscriber base and an increased penetration of value-added services. Reliance Communications will announce its results on April 30.

Bharti Airtel, however, was down 0.95 per cent to Rs 837.55, after striking an all-time high of Rs 867.80. Bharti Airtel unveils its Q4 results on 27th April 2007.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 1.10 per cent to Rs 1558, on a volume of 6.24 shares. It had advanced to a high of Rs 1560, while its low was at Rs 1527.

Drug major Ranbaxy Laboratories lost 0.37 per cent to Rs 342.05, after investing more than USD 20 million (over Rs 83 crore) in the Romanian subsidiary, Terapia Ranbaxy.

Cigarette major ITC was the top-loser, down 2.49 per cent to Rs 156.60, on volumes of 17.18 lakh shares. It had also sunk to a low of Rs 154.85.

Banking stocks were trading lower, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s monetary policy tomorrow. SBI (down 1.80 per cent to Rs 1055.40), HDFC Bank (down 0.87 per cent to Rs 986) and ICICI Bank (down 0.15 per cent to Rs 913) declined.

The central bank will also set forecasts for the year, including inflation and growth. It had raised its short-term lending rate five times in 2006/07 and increased the proportion of deposits that banks have to hold in reserve with it three times to fight inflation pressures.

UNI