One of six stocks beat sensex

Better Benchmark's 23% Gain In Last 12 Sessions With Over 80% Returns

Chennai: The market rally in the last 12 trading sessions has seen one out of every six stocks outperforming the sensex. Up to 287 of the 1,648 stocks listed on BSE and NSE priced over Rs 10, beat the benchmark in the rally that began on March 9.
    Sensex has gained 23% in the period whereas nifty 21%, making it a tad easier for all these market-beaters to enjoy the party on Dalal Street.
    The stock of Sanwaria Agro Oils, which nearly doubled itself to Rs 31.45, heads the winners list, followed by others like Cinemax India (84.2%), Khaitan Electricals (83.8%), Aban Offshore (81.8%), Oregon Commercials (78.7%), J M D Telefilms (78.3%) and D B International Stock Brokers (77.4%), market data complied from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows.
    Penny stocks, with value of less than Rs 10, were kept out of this study as legitimate information on these companies is hard to find and such stocks can easily be manipulated.
    Other notable stocks that gave over 50% returns in this period include Deccan Chronicle Holdings, Essar group firm India Securities, Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren, Blackstone-controlled Gokaldas Exports, Axis Bank and Sterlite Industries — 30 in all.
    Others such as Sesa Goa, Pantaloon Retail, Bajaj Auto Finance, India Infoline, Shyam Telecom, Motilal Oswal Financial, Jet Airways, Novartis India, Tata Steel and ICICI Bank gained between 23% and 50%. Battered real estate firms such as Mahindra Lifespace, Unitech, Ganesh Housing, DLF and Orbit Corporation are also part of the market-beaters.
    Overall, six out of 10 stocks or 1,048 stocks gave positive returns in this rally, which has taken many market participants by surprise. With foreign institutions, mutual funds and insurers favouring stocks over debt, this has led to the markets gaining furious pace and rewarded patient investors who were in the market. UBS Securities has set a 12-month target of 13,500 for sensex, which translates to another 35% upside if the target were to be met by March 2010. UBS analyst Suresh Mahadevan is bullish on auto, banks and, metals and mining.
    "The nifty has crossed psychological mark of 3,000. Now it is trading very close to another important resistance level of 3,150, if this level is a breached decisively then nifty could cross 3,400 mark... Global factors will remain an important factor for forthcoming trading sessions,'' a technical analyst of Indiabulls Securities said.
    Surprisingly, nine stocks such as Abhishek Corporation, K I C Metaliks, Malar Hospitals, Navin Fluorine, Punjab Alkalies & Chemicals and Riga Sugar have neither gained nor lost in this rally. All of them had moved up from March 9 but returns fizzled out by last Friday, i.e, March 27.
    Among losers (over 300 stocks registered losses) were Edserv Softsytems (-52%), Glory Polyfims (-38%), K Sera Sera Productions (-36%), Akruti City (-21.7%) and G M R Industries (-20%).