Market Close: Global alarm ! Clear sell-off..

A sharp sell off across the globe hits Indian markets heavily. Markets opened flat but later proceeded to trade weak for the whole day. No sign of recovery as indices succumbed to heavy profit booking in late trades and finally slipped over 700 points at the end. Some market talk says that Morgan Stanley has issued full recession alert for the US economy which says "perfect storm" for consumers as the housing slump spreads. This was an excuse for the markets to sell off heavily. Selling was witnessed in the Metals (-7.28%), Realty (-5.65%), Power and Oil & gas stocks. Midcap and smallcap also joined the heavyweights for deep cut slide show witnessing second highest single day fall of 769.5 points. Almost all Asian markets ended in red & European markets also showed weakness in the start and currently trading 1% down.

Sensex ended down by 769 points at 19261.35. Weighing on the Sensex were losses in NTPC (228.6,-7 percent), TISCO (823.85,-6 percent), HDFC (2877.55,-6 percent), ONGC (1166.45,-6 percent) and Tata Motors (701.25,-6 percent). Losses were restricted by gains in HLL (218.6,+1 percent).

Cement space witnessed a clear sell-off after report says that Coal India (CIL) has announced a 10% across-the-board hike in the price of coal produced with an immediate effect. The effect of increased coal prices was seen in the cementing counter. Almost 80% of CIL's coal is consumed by the power sector while another 10-12% is consumed by the steel, cement and aluminum sector which will see pressure on there margin. After a three-and-a-half years CIL has reviewed the coal prices. The price rise is expected to improve the CIL bottomline. Cement stocks ended weak with India Cements (down 8%), ACC (-3.5%) Madras Cement (-3%) and Ambuja Cements (2.3% down) being the key losers for the day.

Gillette India performed well at the bourses even in the weak market trend. Gillette India is one of the largest and legendary player for shave blades, razors and shaving products over the global. In India this company has yet to break into the market leadership position. The stock has jumped on the back of interest in FMCG segment. Valuations appear to be fair. We believe that this is on the back of leveraging the distribution network. We expect the low priced penetration strategy to pay dividends. Margins have been maintained which may probably helped by stronger rupee. The company had undergone restructuring, for the same reason revenues were not heart-warming. But now the restructuring is over and production and distribution functions are in place. This is slowly showing it sharpness in the market with out performing its peers. Do read our detailed research note to know more and get benefited. Stock ended up by 5.8%.

Technically Speaking: Markets traded weak for the whole day with negative breadth on the back of global weakness. Sensex touched intraday high of 20032 and low of 19177. Turnover was quite impressive at Rs 9583 Cr. Market breadth was in favor of Decliners at 1950, while Advances stood at 1115. As we mentioned in earlier close that market will test the 19200 level which has been proven today. Technically Sensex has broken through the supports. market may be a bit oversold and a bounce could be expected. However, 19710 would be an important Resistance levels to cross to again get into an upward. Sensex support is placed at 19000 and if that is broken then that could attract significant selling.