Pharma, consumer durables up; indices seen range bound

Pharma and consumer durables stocks were the best performers in trade so far Monday. Other index stocks were quiet. Mid-cap stocks, especially from the banking space, posted smart gains. At 11 am, Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was up 60 points or 0.39 per cent at 15367.99. National Stock Exchange's Nifty was up 15 points or 0.34 per cent at 4479.05. Global markets sent mixed signals. US indices ended over a per cent higher as sub-prime fears receded after President George Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's assurance Friday to shelter the economy from market turmoil. But in Asia, benchmarks Nikkei and Hang Seng were down nearly a per cent. Biggest Sensex gainers were Cipla (up 3.08%), Maruti Udyog (2.35%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (2.22%), HDFC Bank (1.85) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (1.42%). Major index losers were ONGC (down 1.2%), Bharti Airtel (0.82%), Grasim Industries (0.6%), Bajaj Auto (0.56%) and (0.5%). “We expect markets to be range bound with a bullish undertone. Sensex faces resistance at 15,403 levels while support exists at 15,183 levels. Nifty faces resistance at 4,489 levels while support exists at 4,421 levels,” a Networth Stock Broking note said. “Investors may choose news based stocks like Maruti, SBI, Hero Honda and steel counters,” the note adds. Shares of Maruti Udyog rose 2.51 per cent to Rs 890, while Hero Honda was up 1.28 per cent at Rs 656.90. Maruti’s sales grew 25 per cent to 60,229 units in August, while Hero Honda posted 12 per cent rise in sales to 2,40,875 units. Steel stocks were buzzing on news that companies are likely to hike prices by Rs 1,000-1,500 per tonne, with iron ore prices rising 15-20 per cent in the last one month. Jindal Steel gained 2.5 per cent to Rs 4,040, Tata Steel was up 0.8 per cent at Rs 695.25 while Bhushan Steel soar 7.5 per cent to Rs 816.70. Omax Autos added 2.24 per cent on news the company is planning a preferential issue of 25 lakh warrants at Rs 83 per unit. The company will issue 12.5 lakh warrants to Asia Pacific Capital India, and the rest to Gala Finance and Investments. END

SOURCE : ECONOMICTIMES