Post Market Commentary - March 25 2008

The Indian market spurted today to cross the 16,000 mark and closed with handsome gains. Tracking the favoring cues from the global markets, the domestic market opened on a firm note and kept on marching forward throughout the trading session on the back of heavy buying across the sectoral indices. The domestic market rallied by taking the positive cues from the US as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. agreed to increase its bid to acquire Bear Stearns Cos. JP Morgan lifted its offer for Bear Stearns to 10 U.S. dollars per share from 2 dollars. The revised plan is aimed at soothing Bear Stearns shareholders upset over JP Morgan''s earlier offer. Also the economic data pointed to signs of stability that showed US new homes sales had risen by 3% in February 2008. From the sectoral front, all the sectoral indices posted smart gains.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 928.09 points at 16,217.49 and NSE Nifty closed up by 267.65 points 4,877.50. The Mid Caps and Small Caps closed higher by 368.96 points and 334.52 points at 6,174.49 and 7,284.64 respectively.

The market breadth remained strong as 2,075 stocks closed in green as against 640 stocks that closed in red.

From the Sensex pack, JP associate (16.38%), DLF (13.47%) and Reliance Energy (12.97%), Infosys (9.64%) and Wipro (9.02%) were the major gainers.

The Metal index grew by 820.03 points to close at 13,607.64. Scrips that advanced are Gujarat NRE (19.44%), Welspun Guj (12.93%), Jindal Steel (8.23%), JSW Steel (7.68%), SAIL (7.18%), Tata Steel (6.98%) and Hindalco inds (6.04%).

The BSE Realty index closed up by 645.06 points at 7,451.24. Leading the rally are Anant Raj (19.60%), HDIL (13.89%), DLF (13.47%), Unitech (10.21%), Ansal infra (6.80%), Parsvnath (6.64%) and Omaxe (4.52%).

The Capital Goods index surged 641.69 points to close at 13,867.60. Major gainers are Praj Inds (10.29%), Alstom Projects (9.83%), BEML (8.77%), BHEL (7.55%), ABB (5.12%) and L&T (4.01%).

The Bankex index closed higher by 626.99 points at 8,371.34. Gainers are Yes bank (20.53%), Kotak bank (13.36%), Union bank (11.01%), Axis bank (10.27%), Allahabad bank (9.78%) and ICICI bank (9.37%).

The Oil and Gas index advanced by 577.89 points to close at 10,308.80 as Essar Oil (12.82%), Aban Offshore (9.57%), ONGC (7.25%), Cairn India (7.05%), RNRL (6.67%), IOCL (6.62%) and RPL (4.74%) closed in positive.

The IT index closed up by 264.39 points at 3,686.35 as Aptech (22.72%), Educomp Soln (16.48%), NIIT Techno (12.73%), Infosys (9.64%), Wipro (9.02%), I-Flex (8.90%), TCS (6.38%), HCL Tech (4.34%) closed in green .