Post Session Commentary - Feb 20 2008

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 85 points at 17,991 on bearish cues from the Asian markets. Unabated selling saw the index slip deeper into the red as the day progressed.

The index dropped to a low of 17,506 - down 570 points from the previous close - in late noon trades. Some recovery towards the close saw the Sensex end with a loss of 458 points (2.5%) at 17,618.

The NSE Nifty ended 126 points (2.4%) lower at 5,154.

The BSE market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,796 stocks traded, 1,932 declined and 806 advanced today.

BIG LOSERS...

Tata Steel and Maruti slumped nearly 5% each to Rs 773 and Rs 769, respectively.

BHEL and Tata Motors dropped 4.5% each to Rs 2,124 and Rs 706, respectively.

ICICI Bank tumbled over 4% to Rs 1,167, and HDFC declined 3.8% to Rs 2,752.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Communications slipped 3.5% each to Rs 635 and Rs 585, respectively.

Reliance declined around 3% to Rs 2,482.

...AND THE GAINERS

TCS moved up 1% to Rs 884. Infosys, Bajaj and Satyam also finished with gains today.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Bang Overseas topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 326.50 crore followed by another debutant Shriram EPC (Rs 323.50 crore), OnMobile Global (Rs 266 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 258 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 253 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.91 crore shares followed by Bang Overseas (1.67 crore), Hexaware (1.53 crore), Shriram EPC (1.04 crore) and Essar Oil (97 lakh).