Trading firm till early in the afternoon, the market slipped considerably towards close as buying support failed to emerge. The global cues were good with oil prices declining and US markets closing higher yesterday. However, lack of liquidity saw the indices declining on low volumes. The Sensex closed at 6546, down 61 points and the Nifty at 2053, down 16 points.

Among index stocks ABB, Colgate Palmolive and Tata Motors were the biggest percentage gainers while ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto and BHEL were the major losers.

Yesterday's crude futures for May delivery slipped close to half a percent on reports of higher US inventories. Dow closed with gains for the third straight day while NASDAQ closed flat.

The Indian ADR's reversed their losing trend of the last few sessions with HDFC Bank leading the way. The ADR of the private sector bank gained close to 5 percent. Tata Motors gained close to 2 percent while ICICI Bank, Dr. Reddy's and VSNL gained more than a percent each. Among the tech pack, Wipro closed with some gains while Satyam and Infosys ended almost flat. MTNL was the only loser.

Tata Motors has reported excellent sales numbers for the month of March. Total vehicles sold increased 28 percent from a year ago to 44,433 units. Passenger vehicle sales rose more than 30 percent, while exports have doubled. Sales of its Indica model crossed the 100,000 units per year mark for the first time. The stock firmed up on the news and closed with gains of more than two percent.

Tata Steel has restarted production at its largest blast furnace in Jamshedpur. The furnace was undergoing capacity expansion from 1 million to 1.8 million tonnes per annum over the last few months. Even without this furnace, the company was able to post higher production for the year ended March. The stock closed lower.

Reliance Energy has bagged a contract for constructing a 230 MW hydro -power project in the state of Uttaranchal. Reliance Industries received government approval for its plans to develop natural gas fields. The development is expected to cost close to $2.5 billion. Both stocks closed with losses.

Jet Airways gained close to 2 percent as the company is readying to start services to Singapore this week. The airline has also announced the start of a daily service to Kuala Lumpur from Chennai.

Public Sector telecom giant BSNL plans to spend a massive Rs75,000 crore by way of adding an additional 75 million cell phone customers over the next three years. The company has fewer than 10 million cellular subscribers as of now. The proposed merger between BSNL and MTNL is yet to be finally approved by the government. MTNL is a listed company while BSNL is fully owned by the government.

The tech pack generally had a bad day with Infosys losing more than 2 percent. TCS and Satyam also closed with losses while Wipro bucked the trend and closed with more than a percent gain.

Mid-cap action
Mid-caps bucked the weak trend in frontline stocks and the CNX mid-cap 200 index posted gains of more than half a percent.

Jewelry exporter Rajesh Exports gained four percent in early trades on news of an order worth Rs126 crore from Kuwait. The company had received orders from the UAE and Singapore in the recent past.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) announced capital investment plans of Rs750 crore to expand capacity in Maharashtra and Goa telecom circles. The company has around a million customers at present and is confident of adding subscribers at the rate of 100,000 per month in the near future.

United Western Bank made smart gains ahead of its board meeting to raise additional capital to meet capital adequacy norms.

Paper stocks saw good demand in early trades on news of a price hike. According to reports, industry leader Ballarpur Industries has hiked the prices of paper by Rs600 to Rs1,000 per tonne. After trading firm till early afternoon, Bilt closed with marginal losses.

The traders' strike and confusion surrounding the implementation of VAT are affecting the pharma companies. After Pfizer came out with reports of slowing sales last week, Nicholas Piramal said today that it lost almost 6 weeks' worth of sales. The stock lost more than 3 percent in morning trades.

Pioneer Embroideries, the largest manufacturer of embroidered and lace fabrics, saw some action after it announced plans to set up a unit in Nigeria. The company is trying to expand globally in the post quota regime.

Onida Savak lost 10 percent for the second consecutive day, as the merger ratio with parent company Mirc Electronics is unfavorable to Savak shareholders. Onida Savak is a manufacturer of white goods including washing machines.

Among mid-caps, Vesuvius India, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure and Cinevista were among the biggest percentage gainers.

Hindustan Oil Exploration, South East Asia Marine and Calsoft were among the major mid-cap losers.

Market: Indices

National Markets
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