Post Market Commentary - March 5 2008

The Indian market surged in the final trading hours of the session losing a four day losing trend on the back of selective buying across the counters. The market opened flat but managed to make a turnaround after the mid session as the investors showed some buying interest. Also, the statement by the Finance Minister that the FIIs were not behind the recent sharp fall in the market and it could be attributed to sub prime crises and recession concerns in US gave a boost to the investors sentiments. A lot of volatility was witnessed during the trading session. From the sectoral front, the oil & gas, metal and IT stocks remained the centre of attraction as most buying was seen from these baskets. The BSE Sensex closed higher by 202.19 points at 16,542.08 and NSE Nifty grew by 57.15 points to close at 4,921.40. While, the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap also closed lower by 68.05 points and 143.49 points at 7,114.18 and 8,809.79 respectively.

The Indian stock market will remain closed tomorrow i.e. on 06-03-2008 (Thursday) for the celebration of Maha Shivratri.

The Capital Goods index declined 133.88 points to close at 14,688.40. Major losers are Punl Lloyd (6.31%), Praj Industries (2.48%), Siemens (2.56%), BHEL (0.80%) and Bharat Electrical (0.48%).

The Realty index closed lower by 131.93 points at 8,335.48 as Omaxe (5.54%), Unitech (4.27%), Sobha Developers (2.27%), HDIL (2.01%), India Bull Real (1.32%) and Purvankara (0.70%) closed lower.

The Bankex index slipped by 140.73 points to close at 8,916.03. Losers are BOI (7.64%), Union Bank (6.63%), BOB (6.50%), IOB (5.96%), Andhra Bank (1.17%), AXIX Bank (1.08%) and SBI (1.06%).

The Oil and Gas index closed up by 164.63 points at 10,330.75 as ONGC (3.05%), BPCL (3.01%), Reliance Inds (2.29%), Gail India (1.21%), RPL (0.90%), Aban Offshore (0.45%) closed lower.

From the IT index, Satyam (6.70%), Finance Tech (5.91%), HCL Tech (4.44%), Infosys (3.87%), Wipro (3.25%), TCS (2.48%), Tech Mahindra (1.40%) closed in green