Post Market Commentary - Feb 20 2008

The market closed the trading session with heavy losses on the back of more selling pressures across the sectoral indices. The domestic market opened with heavy gap down by taking the negative cues from the Asian markets as well as due to rising crude oil price above $100 a barrel, which adds to the sentiments. Then after the market keeps on drifting down further till the closing of the session as the selling pressures prevailed. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has recommended that the face value of shares will be made Re1 in two phases. In the first phase, all the forthcoming companies coming out with IPO to be priced at a face value of Re1 and in the second phase all the listed companies having the face value of more than Re1 will be asked to bring it down. This recommendation would be discussed at the next Sebi board meeting. The BSE Sensex closed lower by 458.06 points at 17,617.60 and NSE Nifty fell by 126.35 points at 5,154.45. The BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap closed lower by 95.94 points and 164.28 points at 7,589.39 and 9,631.26 respectively.

BSE CG closed lower by 459.40 points at 15,932.87 as BHEL (4.54%), Praj Inds (3.95%), ABB (2.94%), Thermax (2.93%) and L&T (2.55%) closed lower.

BSE Metal index fell by 376.42 points to close at 15,833.53 as Nalco (5.97%), Tata Steel (4.92%), Ispat Inds (4.22%), Jindal Steel (3.82%), SAIL (2.65%) and Hindalco (1.61%) closed lower.

BSE Bankex index closed lower by 353.95 points at 10,609.81. Losers are Canara bank (6.27%), Kotak bank (5.01%), BOI (4.28%), ICICI bank (4.19%), Allahabad bank (3.91%).

BSE Realty index dropped by 361.50 points to close at 9,709.24. Major losers are Indbul Real (5.97%), Penland (4.74%), Ansal Infra (4.32%) and Purvankara (4%).

BSE Oil & Gas index fell by 246.88 points to close at 10,884. Losers are RNRL (5.28%), HPCL (4.86%), BPCL (4.64%), IOCL (3.93%), Reliance Inds (2.77%) and Cairn (2.53%).