Small-cap, mid-cap indices shine

The market ended slightly lower today, 10 December 2007, in a choppy trading session. 20 out of 30 Sensex stocks ended in the red. Concerns on the political front resurfaced after communist allies warned the government against going ahead with a civilian US nuclear deal.

European markets, which opened after Indian market, were mixed. Asian markets, which opened before Indian market, were subdued. Concerns arising from US sub-prime mortgage crisis resurfaced after Swiss bank UBS unveiled $10 billion in subprime writedowns on Monday, 10 December 2007, while simultaneously announcing that it had obtained an emergency capital injection from a Singapore government entity and an unnamed Middle East investor.

Hindalco Industries and ICICI Bank were top gainers from the Sensex pack. Tata Consultancy Services and Bharat Heavy Electricals were top losers from Sensex pack. Reliance Industries declined. Consumer goods and realty stocks gained. FMCG stocks declined. BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices outperformed Sensex.

Communist parties, a key ally of the ruling Congress party-led coalition, fired a fresh salvo on Sunday, 9 December 2007, asking the government to stop talks on a controversial nuclear deal with a UN nuclear watchdog.

The 30-share BSE Sensex shed 35.32 points or 0.18% to 19,930.68.

The market was volatile. Sensex had hit a high of 20,095.69 in early trade. At day's high, Sensex had gained 129.96 points. Sensex hit a low of 19,834.01 in mid-afternoon trade. At day's low, Sensex had lost 131.99 points for the day.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty lost 13.7 points or 0.23% at 5,960.60.

US November 2007 non-farm payrolls increased and unemployment rates remained steady, data on Friday, 7 December 2007 showed. While the numbers helped to ease recession concerns, they also reduced probability of the US Federal Reserve cutting the Fed funds rate by a steep 50 basis points at its 11 December 2007 meeting.

Market breadth was strong. On BSE, 2,032 stocks advanced, 801 stocks declined and 29 stocks remained unchanged.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 7,359 crore, compared to Friday (7 December 2007)'s Rs 8,677.98 crore.

Nifty December 2007 futures were at 5979, at a premium of 18.40 points as compared to the spot closing of 5960.60.

The NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 47,277.77 crore, which was lower than Rs 61,359.41 crore on Friday, 7 December 2007.

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.06% to 9,117.44 and BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.66% to 11,530.16. Both these indices outperformed Sensex.

BSE Auto index (up 0.46% to 5,677.39), BSE Bankex (up 0.95% to 11,486.55), BSE Consumer Durables index (up 2.18% to 6,059.12), BSE IT index (up 0.19% to 4,432.92), BSE Oil & Gas index (up 0.04% to 12,740), BSE Realty index (up 2.13% to 11,822.88) outperformed Sensex.

BSE Capital Goods index (down 0.44% to 20,130.92), BSE FMCG (down 0.78% to 2,160.27), BSE Power index (down 0.58% to 4,501.33) underperformd Sensex.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization & oil refiner Reliance Industries declined 0.67% to Rs 2,822.30. As per reports, it has intensified restructuring of its retail venture Reliance Retail to create up to 30 independent business activities, each targeted to be a profit centre. Speculation is rife of a mega initial public offer in 2008 of Reliance Retail.

Consumer durables stocks rose. Videocon Industries (up 10% to Rs 609.70), Blue Star (up 1.71% to Rs 475.75) and Rajesh Exports (up 1.39% to Rs 919.40) edged higher.

Realty majors edged higher. India’s largest real estate developer in terms of market capitalisaion DLF rose 1.44% to Rs 1,025.90.

Unitech rose 3.11% to Rs 442.30. As per reports, India’s second-largest real estate developer, Unitech has major plans, which look beyond real estate. After announcing its plans of entering the telecom business, Unitech now wants to concentrate on positioning itself as a full fledged infrastructure development company with interests in power, roads, airports and also in other areas wherever it sees an opportunity. Besides, it also plans to enter the international market.

Indiabulls Real Estate rose 3.83% to Rs 713.85. The company said before trading hours today, 10 December 2007, its wholly owned subsidiary, Indiabulls Wholesale Services (IWSL), is proposing to make an open offer for Piramyd Retail, a retail company.

Banking stocks were mixed. ICICI Bank (up 2.1% to Rs 1,273.75) edged higher. HDFC Bank (down 1.65% to Rs 1,693.20), State Bank of India (down 0.5% to Rs 2,424.50) edged lower.

FMCG stocks lost ground. ITC (down 0.95% to Rs 187.10) and Hindustan Unilever (down 1.37% to Rs 205.50) edged lower.

Bharti Airtel rose 1.13% to Rs 970.45. Bharti Airtel announced before the market hours today 10 December 2007 that, Bharti Infratel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar have agreed to form an independent tower company, Indus Towers to provide passive infrastructure services in India to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis. Idea Cellular rose 3.64% to Rs 137.90.

Hindalco Industries (up 2.63% to Rs 193.10), Infosys (up 1.76% to Rs 1,748.45), Reliance energy (up 0.98% to Rs 1,951) edged higher.

Tata Consultancy Services (down 2.41% to Rs 1,035.70), HDFC (down 1.67% to Rs 2,872.15), Cipla (down 2.08% to Rs 192.0), and Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 2.4% to Rs 2,677.35) edged lower.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra_ clocked the highest volume of 4.06 crore shares on BSE. The stock rose 7.86% to Rs 59. GV Films rose 18.2% to Rs 7.99 and clocked the second highest volume of 2.92 crore shares. Ispat Industries rose 2.35% to Rs 71.90 and clocked the third highest volume of 2.71 crore shares. Centurion Bank of Punjab rose 2.87% to Rs 57.30 and clocked the fourth highest volume of 1.54 crore shares. IFCI rose 5% to Rs 106 and clocked the fifth highest volume of 1.42 crore shares.

Tata Teleservices Maharashtra clocked the highest turnover of Rs 232.44 crore on BSE. Reliance Petroleum (Rs 212.68 crore), Ispat Industries (Rs 193.56 crore), Essar Oil (Rs 183.41 crore) and IFCI (Rs 150.74 crore) were other turnover toppers on BSE in that order.

European markets were mixed today. France’s CAC 40 (up 0.08% to 5,732.73), Germany’s DAX (up 0.31% to 8,018.79) edged higher. UK’s FTSE 100 (down 0.02% to 6,553.50) edged lower.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the red today, 10 December 2007. Taiwan Weighted index (down 1.43% to 8,598.03), Nikkei (down 0.2% to 15,924.39), Straits Times index (down 0.14% to 3,553.08), Hang Seng (down 1.18% to 28,511.07) and Seoul Composite index (down 1.44% to 1,906.42) edged lower. Shanghai Composite index (up 1.38% to 5,161.92) edged higher.

US stocks ended on a mixed note on Friday, 7 December 2007 in spite of better than expected employment data. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5.69 points, or 0.04%, to 13,625.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 2.68 points, or 0.18%, to 1,504.66. The Nasdaq Composite index slipped 2.87 points, or 0.11%, to 2,706.16.