Wild sensex flight leaves small investors

The sensex and the Nifty are scaling new highs and the domestic stock markets are growing at a pace, second only to Korea — the fastest-growing economy in Asia. But the average Indian investor is losing money and fast.

Raids on brokers and Sebi’s recent bans on trading in certain stocks have taken their toll on stocks that have traditionally been within the reach of the common investor, so much so that almost half of such investors’ wealth is estimated to have been eroded.

Of the 2,585 stocks that were traded in the eight-day period, about 1,238 stocks or 48% of the stocks fell in the range of 10% to 25%. Values of about 546 stocks fell between 25% and 50%, while 564 stocks fell between 0% and 10%. In the same period, the 30-share sensex, which is a benchmark of the stock market, rose from 8500.28 to 8634.48 — a rise of 134 points or about 1.6%

Sensex flirts with 8700; investors make a Rs 13k-cr pile

After booking some profit on Friday, investors were quick to make a comeback on the bourses taking the sensex to a new peak on Monday. According to brokers, the mood remained bullish amid a combination of positive factors such as robust GDP growth, hopes of better second quarter results and announcement of strong vehicle

sales numbers by auto majors.

In a range-bound session, the sensex moved in a positive territory for the entire session, hitting an all-time high of 8725.8 at intra-day level and 8697.7 at closing level. The index gained 63 points, or 0.7%, making investors richer by Rs 13,000 crore. The NSE 50-share Nifty rose 29 points, or 1.1%, to scale a record high of 2630.

Auto stocks led the rally with the BSE Auto index soaring almost 100 points to end at 3721. Among auto heavyweights, Bajaj Auto climbed the highest 4.5%, while Maruti Udyog rose 3.6%. Tata Motors gained 3.5%, while M&M was up 2.8%. Hero Honda

ended 0.9% higher.

The action in auto stocks followed announcement of robust vehicle numbers for September by Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda and TVS Motor and MUL’s hike in prices for its models.

Technology heavyweights gained ground ahead of announcement of their results. Infosys Technologies gained 1.5%, while Satyam Computer Services rose 2.6%. TCS was up 1%. The IT sector is expected to post good performance on the back of better pricing, strong order flows and weak rupee.

Contributing to the sensex gain, index heavyweight HLL gained 2%, while SBI rose 0.7%. Pharma majors Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Ranbaxy Laboratories also gained substantially on the back of value buying.

The 63-point gain in the sensex came despite a slowdown in FII activity on the bourses. FIIs, in fact, were net sellers for Rs 37 crore on Friday, compared to their net inflows of Rs 133 crore on the previous day.

Investors make a Rs 23 lakh-cr pile on bourses

Smart gains in blue chip shares led by technology heavyweights pushed

investor wealth to a record high on Tuesday.

Riding high on the back of robust earning expectations, the BSE 30-share sensex jumped 102 points, or 1.2%, to end at a new peak of 8,799.9, adding over Rs 40,000 crore to the investor kitty. Investor fortunes locked up in the Indian stock market, which is calculated in terms of market capitalisation of all the companies traded on the BSE, is now pegged at a mind-boggling Rs 23.1 lakh crore, a figure never seen in the history of the market.

Investors in IT shares were the biggest gainers, thanks to high hopes about the sector’s performance during the second quarter. Market cap of the 32 regularly traded IT companies spurted Rs 6,545 crore, or 2.2%, to Rs 2,99,000 crore on Tuesday.

IT heavyweights led by Wipro and Infosys Technologies attracted good fund-based buying, ahead of their results.

Investors in other sectors like oil and gas, banking, capital goods, pharmaceutical, steel, telecom services also saw a substantial improvement in their wealth. Their combined wealth in these sectors rose between Rs 863 crore and Rs 4,371 crore (oil and gas).

Sensex drops 163 pts in early trade

Tracking global trend, the domestic stock markets also witnessed a crash with the Bombay Stock Exchange's sensitive index falling by 163.20 points at 8561.27 Thursday in early trading.

The BSE index, which had been volatile recently had gained nearly 1,000 points in the last one month, fell Thursday on fresh selling by major market players.

Major stocks which dragged down the sensex were ONGC, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, HDFC Ltd, State Bank of India and Larsen and Toubro.

A few stocks mid-section were also down on fresh spell of selling.

Sensex dives 196, investors lose Rs 43k cr

Indian equities succumbed to heavy selling pressure triggered by a melt-down in global stock markets over concerns about rising interest rates, slowing growth and inflation in the US.

The BSE 30-share sensex tumbled nearly 200 points as market players, including institutional investors, sold heavily in shares across the board amidst a generally bearish mood on Thursday. The market breadth remained extremely negative, despite hopes of strong second quarter numbers.

After opening weak below 8700, the sensex witnessed a free fall, hitting an intra-day low of 8508, before ending at 8529 — down 196 points or 2.2%. The NSE 50-share Nifty slipped 65 points to close at 2579. The 196-point slump caused a market loss of nearly Rs 43,000 crore on Thursday.

In India, the market witnessed all-round selling with all of BSE’s sectoral indices taking a beating on Thursday. Out of a total of 2,543 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,933 lost ground, while only 578 recorded gains.

“Institutional investors, clearly, were major sellers in index heavyweights on Thursday. There was hardly any buying support at lower levels, which kept the market in the red for the entire session.

Technically, the market will see good support at 8430. If it falls below this level, the next support will be at 7900,” said Ambareesh Baliga, vice president, Karvy Stock Broking, one of the leading retail brokerages in the country.

Dragging the sensex down were index heavyweights such as HLL, which slipped 3.1% to Rs 175.3, while ITC fell 2.9% to Rs 127.8. SBI dropped 2.3% to Rs 925, while Reliance Industries fell 1.4% at Rs 791. ICICI Bank lost 4.5% to Rs 536, while ONGC ended 3% lower at Rs 1,039. Tata Steel, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto, Tata Power, TCS and Reliance Energy were among top losers in the sensex list.

Banking, auto, metal and FMCG sector shares were at the receiving end. The BSE Metal index lost maximum number of points — 273 — or 3.9%, to end at 6649, while the Bankex plummeted 165 points, or 3.3% to end at 4878. Auto and FMCG indices were down 2.4% and 2.5% respectively.

Punjabi cos’share in BSE-200 m-cap rises

Gujaratis sure take the cake when it comes to business. Gujarati-owned companies outshine those owned by the Marwaris, Parsis, Punjabis and South Indians in the BSE-200 list.

The Aditya Birla group is the largest contributor to this group. It accounts for 35% of the group’s market cap, 41% of its net profit and 30% of its net sales.

The past five years have seen Punjabi-owned business houses improving their position. Their share in the total BSE-200 m-cap has risen from 3.13% in June ’00 to 8% now. There has also been an increase in their contribution to profits and sales, albeit on a more modest scale. In contrast, South Indian-owned companies have witnessed a decline in their m-cap share.

Five years ago, they accounted for 18% share of m-cap in the BSE-200 list. Today, this figure has come down to 8%. However, over the past five years, their share in net sales and post-tax profits has risen. Infosys is a key growth driver for the this group of companies and accounts for 47% of its m-cap.

Another South-based IT major, Wipro, has not been grouped with the South Indian companies. For the purpose of this exercise, it was taken as a Muslim-owned company, along with pharma majors Cipla and Wockhardt. This group accounted for about 3.8% of the total market cap of the BSE-200 companies. Wipro is among the top 10 companies by m-cap among individual performers in the BSE-200 list.

ICICI Ventures buys 10% Scandent stake for Rs 271 crore.