Post Market Commentary - Feb 22 2008

The market closed on a disappointing note with heavy losses across the sectoral indices. Taking the negative cues from the global markets, the domestic market opened with a heavy gap down and kept on hovering in the negative territory through out the trading session. Lack of investor''s interest in buying to book their positions led the frontline indices to close in the negative territory. Also, the weekly inflation figures that rose 4.35% for the week ended February 9, 2008 from 4.07% last week also add to the negative sentiments in the market. Also, the Union Budget 2008-09 due next week on Feb 29 led the investors to take calculative steps to book their positions. This budget will be last full-fledged budget from the Congress led UPA government before general elections, which is scheduled to be held early next year. From the sectoral front, the bankex, Oil & Gas, CG and IT were the most hit as most selling was seen from heses counters. The BSE Sensex closed lower by 385.61 points at 17,349.09 and NSE Nifty closed down by 81.05 points at 5,110.75. The BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap closed lower by 74.48 points and 97.58 points at 7,594.45 and 9,595.41 respectively.

BSE Bankex index fell by 328.72 points to close at 10,150.22. Major losers are HDFC bank (4.40%), ICICI bank (3.89%), Oriental bank (3.34%), Axis bank (3.12%).

BSE Oil & Gas index dropped by 239.26 points to close at 10,673. Scrips that lost are Cairn Ind (3.08%), Gail India (3%), Reliance Inds (2.87%), RNRL (2.43%).

BSE Metal index slipped by 70.44 points to close at 16,368.94 as Gujrat NRE (3.87%), Welspun Guj (3.42%), Ispat Inds (2.14%), JSW Steel (2.38%), Maharash Sea (2.24%) closed lower.

BSE IT index closed lower by 123.69 points at 3,918.28 as HCL Tech (4.97%), Mphasis (4.94%), Rolta Ind (4.78%), Satyam (4.23%), Mosear Baer (3.23%) and TCS (2.28%) closed in red.

BSE CG dropped by 181.74 points to close at 15,656.16. Losers are BEML (4.15%), Crompton Greaves (3.51%), Thermax (3.38%), Areva (3.04%) and BHEL (1.59%).