Post Market Commentary

Global jitters and profit booking saw equities end in negative terrain on Monday.

Trade started off firm, shunning weakness in Asian markets, and driving the Sensex to 15,726 and Nifty to 4549 levels early in the session. But traders turned cautious not wanting to take bets ahead of the US Federal Reserve's meeting on Tuesday.

Adding to the anxiety, European markets were weak as UK's Northern Rock tumbled further, pulling other financials down. But even as analysts said the market has already discounted this factor, selling pressure mounted back home and the Sensex and Nifty ended at the day's low.

The National Stock Exchange's benchmark index ended down 23 points or 0.52 per cent at 4494.65. Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex closed down 99 points or 0.64 per cent at 15,504.43.

"The market is a little on the weaker side. We will continue to see sideways movement with a negative bias, till the FOMC meet is through. But if the Nifty breaks 4450 on the lower side, there will be more weakness," said Sandeep Wagle, chief technical analyst at Angel Stock Broking.

Chiefly responsible for the fall were HDFC (down 3.31%), Tata Consultancy Services (2.47%), Reliance Communications ( 2.26%), Bharti Airtel (2%), Satyam Computer (1.97%) and NTPC (1.56%).

But select auto and cement stocks managed to hold gains. Reliance Energy (up 2.85%), Maruti Udyog (1%), Bajaj Auto (0.72%), Ambuja Cements (0.52%), Tata Motors (0.36%) and ACC (0.33%) were the major index gainers.

Mid-caps, yet again, out performed the front liners. BSE Mid-cap Index finished 0.27 per cent at 6,915.37 and CNX Mid-cap Index gained 0.46 per cent to 6308.8. Market breadth on BSE showed 1,380 advances and 1,365 declines, while on NSE, 564 shares gained and 599 fell.

But as the broader market weakened, stock specific action was seen. McNally Bharat Engineering was up 3.38 per cent on receiving an order valued at Rs 258.68 crore from Steel Authority of India.

Nagarjuna Construction advanced 0.81 per cent on bagging orders worth Rs 150 crore for construction of bridges for Karnataka Road Development Corporation and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects gained 2.10 per cent on receiving orders aggregating Rs 368.14 crore from Chennai Water Supply & Sewerage Board. Aban Offshore added 2 per cent on securing an order valued at Rs 2,000 crore from ONGC.