Post Market Commentary - Feb 1 2008

The market closed on an upbeat note tracking favoring cues from the global markets. Heavy buying across the counters led the benchmark indices to beat its four day losing trend as well due to the smooth expiry of January 2008 derivatives contracts. The market opened on a firm note but lost the grip soon to pare all its gains but later on gathered the momentum towards the mid session to close with handsome gains. Whereas the Mid cap and Small Cap failed to attract the investors confidence as most selling was seen from these baskets. Inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) rose to 3.93% for the week ended 19 January 2008 from 3.83% in the previous week. The BSE Sensex closed higher by 584.71 points at 18,233.42 while NSE Nifty closed up by 179.8 points at 5,317.25. The BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices also closed lower by 17.60 points and 51.31 points at 7,749.02 and 10,073.11 respectively.

BSE Metal index closed higher by 556.06 points at 15,868.98. Scrips that advanced are Sterlite Inds (8.60%), JSW Steel (7.31%), Hindalco Inds (6.73%), Tata Steel (5.86%), SAIL (5.46%).

BSE Oil & Gas index grew by 301.52 points to close at 11,006.72. Gainers are BPCL (5.82%), ONGC (5.68%), RPL (4.97%), Cairn India (4.59%), RNRL (2.66%) .

BSE Auto index closed up by 171.13 points at 5,003.61 as Apollo Tyres (8.14%), Hero Honda (7.04%), Tata Motors (6.82%), Maruti Suzuki (6.60%), Bajaj Auto (3.99%) closed higher.

BSE FMCG index increased by 58.32 points to close at 2,225.66 as Rei Agro (4.96%), ITC (4.94%), Marico (1.96%), Dabur (1.47%) closed in green.

BSE Bankex index grew by 205 points to close at 10,918.91. Scrips that advanced are ICICI bank (4.55%), BOB (4.33%), IOB (2.96%), BOI (2.63%), Canara bank (2.18%).

BSE Power index increased by 54.15 points to close at 3,795.42 as Tata Power (4.77%), Suzlon Energy (4.55%), NTPC (3.84%), Power Grid (2.23%), ABB (1.10%) closed in green.