Market up 450 points

The market continued its upward journey in afternoon trade as European markets which opened after Indian market, nudged higher in early trade. Market had spurted earlier in the day tracking strong Asian markets. IT, banking and FMCG stocks rose. ITC and State Bank of India were major gainers from the Sensex pack. Maruti Suzuki India and Bharat Heavy Electricals were major losers from the Sensex pack. The market breadth was positive. All the sectoral indices on BSE were in green.

At 13:22 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 461.38 points or 2.99% at 15,801.30. At the day’s high of 15,823.12, the Sensex rose 480 points in afternoon trade. At the day’s low of 15,321.56 Sensex lost 21.56 points in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was up 135.05 points or 2.91% at 4,782.05.

In Europe, key benchmark indices in France, Germany’s DAX and UK were up by between 0.39% to 0.81%.

Asian stocks nudged higher today, 7 April 2008, as a worse-than-expected US payrolls data on Friday, 4 April 2008, which showed a fall of 80,000 jobs in March 2008, raised expectations of further interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan were up by between 0.4% to 4.45%. US equities held steady on Friday after the poor showing in employment and despite worries about banking sector earnings.

Meanwhile, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman C.B. Bhave today said the Sebi will hold a meeting with foreign funds and their custodians to discuss issues regarding the proposed margins imposed on institutional investors. Sebi had said last month that institutional investors will be required to pay a margin on trades executed in the cash market by the next day, effective from 21 April 2008.

The market breadth was strong: on BSE 1410 shares advanced as compared to 1036 that declined. 62 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index up 1.18% to Rs 6,337.06 and BSE Small-Cap index up 0.64% to 7,764.12.

FMCG stocks spurted. United Spirits (up 4.34% to Rs 1,655.20), ITC (up 5.83% to Rs 212.50) and Hindustan Unilever (up 4.43% to Rs 252.50) edged higher.

Banking stocks galloped. ICICI Bank (up 5.7% to Rs 806.50), State Bank of India (up 5.77% to Rs 1,698) and HDFC Bank (up 1.85% to Rs 1,316) edged higher.

IT stocks rose. India’s largest IT services exporter by sales Tata Consultancy Services rose 4.93% to Rs 913.10. The company has signed a new multi-year contract with Chrysler LLC to provide a comprehensive portfolio of IT services. Wipro (up 5.39% to Rs 438), Satyam Computer Services (up 2.97% to Rs 437.90) and Infosys (up 2.5% to Rs 1,520) edged higher.

India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 2.9% to Rs 2,405. As per reports, Reliance Industries is planning to enter into the rig manufacturing business besides investing $2.5 billion to enter into petrocoke gasification.

India’s second largest telecom services provider by sales Reliance Communications (RCom) rose 2.27% to Rs 511.50. It has reportedly formed a joint venture with a local firm to launch GSM mobile services in Sri Lanka by this year.

India's largest state-run oil exploration firm in terms of revenue ONGC rose 2.99% to Rs 1,036.ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporations (ONGC), will reportedly sign an agreement on 8 April 2008 to take a 40% stake in the San Cristobal oilfield in Venezuela. OVL will make a total investment of $355.7 million comprising signature bonus of $173.1 million for the stake, the reports added.

India’s largest truckmaker by sales Tata Motors rose 2.62% to Rs 629.70 after reports of company raising the price of trucks and buses by an average of 3.5 % from 1 April 2008 to offset higher raw material costs.

Bharti Airtel (up 5.23% to Rs 825), Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 5.51% to Rs 483.50), Jaiprakash Associates (up 4.29% to Rs 230.75) and DLF (up 2.34% to Rs 622) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.52% to Rs 752.60), Ambuja Cements (down 0.25% to Rs 118.80) and Reliance Energy (down 0.29% to Rs 1,163) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 1.72% to Rs 1608) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Sita Shree Food Products was trading at a premium of 50.83% at Rs 45.25 on BSE on its debut today. The company had priced the IPO at the top end of the Rs 27 to Rs 30 price band.

Petron Engineering Construction rose 4.87% to Rs 219 after it secured a contract worth Rs 84.27 crore from Bharat Oman Refineries for mechanical works at one of its refineries.

As per provisional data, foreign funds sold shares worth a net Rs 848.57 crore on Friday, 4 April 2008. Domestic funds bought shares worth a net Rs 579.84 crore.

Foreign funds were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 517.24 crore and they net sold index options worth Rs 117.37 crore on Friday. FIIs were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 139.72 crore. They were net sellers of stock options to the tune of Rs 3.20 crore.

Sensex plunged 489.43 points or 3.09% at 15,343.12 on Friday, 4 April 2008, on fears of monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of India after the latest data showed a surge in inflation to a 3-year high of 7% in late March 2008.

The next major trigger for the market is Q4 March 2008 results of India Inc. Analysts will be closely watching what the company managements have to say about the outlook for the year ending March 2009 (FY 2009). Analysts will also scrutinize disclosures that companies may make regarding foreign exchange derivatives products that they have bought on the advice of their bankers. A steep decline in the value of the US dollar against the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc hit Indian corporates which have used these two currencies (Yen and Franc) extensively to swap their rupee denominated debt.

As regards Q4 March 2008 results, Morgan Stanley expects 23% growth in net earnings of 104 out of 108 firms in its Indian coverage universe in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007.