Sixth straight day of gains

The market extend its rally for sixth straight session today led by real estate, cement and infrastructure stocks. However, IT shares faltered after TCS’ earnings disappointed. The market breadth was positive. Recovery in some Asian markets triggered a sharp pull-back from day’s lows in afternoon trade.

Asian markets, which opened before Indian market, were in the red at the onset of the trading session after disappointing results posted by Bank of America Corp, the largest US retail bank, kept concerns about the fallout of the global credit crisis alive. However, markets in Hong Kong, China and Singapore recovered later. European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were in green.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 44.54 points or 0.27% at 16,783.87. Sensex gained 114.63 points at day’s high of 16,853.96 hit in early-afternoon trade. It opened with 52.78 points lower at 16,686.55 and slipped further to touch a low of 16,597.53 in early trade. At the day’s low, the Sensex lost 141.80 points.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was up 12.30 points or 0.24% at 5,049.30. Nifty April 2008 futures were at 5048, a slight discount of 1.30 points as compared to spot closing.

Market may turn volatile in coming days ahead of the expiry of April 2008 derivative series on Thursday, 24 April 2008. As per reports, Nifty rollover from April 2008 series to May 2008 series stood at 34% while marketwide rollover was 15%, as on Monday, 21 April 2008.

Indian stock market posted gains for the sixth straight session today, 22 April 2008, primarily due to healthy earnings and firm global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex has gained 1088.77 points or 6.94% in six trading sessions from 15,695.10 on 10 March 2008. From a low of 14,809.49 on 17 March 2008, Sensex has advanced 1974.38 points or 13.33%.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.78% to 7,037.62 and the BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.52% to 8,798.08. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth was positive on BSE with 1563 shares advancing as compared to 1127 that declined. 57 remained unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 6,125 crore as compared to Rs 5,883.10 crore yesterday, 21 April 2008. Turnover in NSE’s futures & options segment amounted to Rs 51643.74 crore as compared to Rs 40635.23 crore yesterday, 21 April 2008

Sectoral indices on BSE displayed mixed trend. The BSE Bankex (up 1.59% at 8,716.83), the BSE Health Care index (up 0.74% at 4,192.26), the BSE Metal index (up 2.07% to 15,529.38), the BSE Capital Goods index (up 1.90% at 13,928.71), the BSE FMCG index (up 0.63% at 2,380.94), the BSE Realty index (up 3% at 7,906.14), the BSE Power (up 1.12% to 3,318.13), the BSE Consumer Durables index (up 1.75% to 4,432.75), and the BSE PSU index (up 0.87% to 7,967.56), outperformed the Sensex

The BSE IT index (down 4.32% to 3,930.47), the BSE Auto (down 0.04% at 4,546.21), the BSE TecK index (down 2.40% to 3,263.43), and the BSE Oil & Gas index (down 0.34% to 11,477.39), underperformed the Sensex.

Among the Sensex pack, 18 advanced while the rest declined.

IT pivotals tumbled after India’s largest software services exporter TCS was downgraded by foreign brokerages after its earnings disappointed. TCS slumped 10.94% to Rs 884 on 8 lakh shares after the company reported 5.95% fall in net profit to Rs 1108.81 crore on 2.23% rise in net sales to Rs 4942.49 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q3 December 2007. The results were announced after trading hours on Monday, 21 April 2008. It was the top loser from Sensex pack.

Other IT pivotals were not spared either. Infosys (down 2.42% to Rs 1605.30), Wipro (down 4.11% to Rs 435), and Satyam Computer Services (down 5.44% to Rs 434), slipped

India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries was down 1.55% of Rs 2601.30 despite posting 24% rise in net profit to Rs 3912 crore on 36.27growth in total income to Rs 37575 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007. Reliance Industries (RIL)’s gross refining margin (GRM) increased to $15.5 per barrel in Q4 March 2008 as compared to $13 a barrel in Q4 March 2007. The company announced the results after trading hours on Monday, 21 April 2008.

India’s top pharma company in terms of sales, Ranbaxy Laboratories slipped 2.80% to Rs 485 after the company entered into strategic business alliance with Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals involving multiple geographies and therapies for both finished dosage formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals shares slipped 1.44% to Rs 245.80

Grasim (down 1.85% to Rs 2595), and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.59% to Rs 629.05), edged lower from Sensex pack.

India’s biggest dam builder Jaiprakash Associates surged 6% to Rs 247 on 51.36 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack

Bharat Heavy Electricals, the country’s largest state run engineering company in terms of outstanding order book position gained 5.84% to Rs 1877 on reports the company has won orders worth around Rs 2030 crore for supply and installation of the main plan package at Nabinagar thermal power plant project in Bihar.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the country's largest oil exploration company in terms of market capitalisation, rose 2.06% to Rs 1051 despite the Income Tax department slapping a Rs 1,768.49 crore claim on the company for giving discounts on crude to public sector oilmarketing companies under orders from the government.

Shares from real estate sector advanced on fresh buying. DLF (up 3.49% to Rs 674), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 1.67% to Rs 503.90), Unitech (up 4.91% to Rs 280.90), Purvankara Projects (up 6.05% to Rs 277), and Ansal Infrastructures (up 10.56% to Rs 165.60), also surged.

Cement shares gained after UltraTech Cement reported good Q4 results during trading hours. UltraTech Cement Company jumped 6.20% to Rs 820. ACC (up 2.46% to Rs 820), Binani Cement (up 5.58% to Rs 86.05), India Cements (up 3.35% to Rs 193), advanced

However, UltraTech Cement said at the time of announcing the Q4 results that continuous government intervention to rein in cement prices has resulted in uncertain price environment, which along with significant increase in input costs will have an adverse impact on margins.

HDFC (up 3.86% to Rs 2580), HDFC Bank (up 3.10% to Rs 1490), and Larsen & Toubro (up 2.69% to Rs 2922) edged higher from Sensex pack.

Kiri Dyes and Chemicals settled with 5.7% premium on debut at Rs 158.55 on BSE compared to IPO price of Rs 150. The stock debuted at Rs 151 a premium of 0.06% over initial price offer (IPO) of Rs 150. On BSE, 35.10 lakh shares were traded in the counter.

Among the stocks with high volumes, IFCI surged 17.70% to Rs 59.85 on 3.45 crore shares. Reliance Natural Resources gained 7.02% to Rs 118.20 on 2.71 crore shares. Ispat Industries advanced 8.10% to Rs 36.70 on 3.27 crore shares. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) gained 6.91% to Rs 36.35 on 1.43 crore shares. Nagarjuna Fertilisers & Chemicals rose 2.55% to Rs 50.25 on 93 lakh shares.

Orchid Chemicals topped the turnover charts on BSE clocking turnover of Rs 355.30 crore followed by Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 314 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 220.70 crore), Kiri Dyes (Rs 212.70 crore) and IFCI (Rs 193.50 crore) in that order.

PSL gained 3.12% to Rs 316 after the company said it has secured two orders worth Rs 1,225 crore from Larsen & Toubro and HPCL-Mittal for laying pipelines.

Everest Kanto Cylinder gained 1.87% to Rs 307.70 after the company said it has successfully completed the acquisition of all the assets of CP Industries, Inc. United States for $66.3 million.

Shyam Telecom jumped 10% to Rs 109.45 on reports it is in advanced talks with Reliance Telecom Infrastructure, for first active infrastructure sharing arrangement in the country.

United Spirits declined 5.18% to Rs 1,665 even as the company reported 21.7% rise in net profit to Rs 65.11 crore in on 16.5% rise in net sales to Rs 758.98 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007. The company announced the results after trading hours on 21 April 2008.

Escorts rose 5.3% to Rs 104.40 on reporting 44.3% rise in net profit to Rs 9.68 crore inon 7.4% decline in net sales to Rs 531.47 crore in Q2 March 2008 over Q2 March 2007

Key European markets, which opened after Indian markets were trading higher. Indices from United Kingdom (up 0.20% to 6,064.90), France (up 0.28% to 4,924.01), and Germany (up 0.32% to 6,80834) rose.

Asia markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei (down 1.09% at 13,547.80), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (down 0.51% at 9,037.25), and South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 0.72% at 1,788.06), edged lower. However, Shanghai Composite (up 0.99% to 3,147.33), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (up 0.88% at 24,939.45), and Singapore's Straits Times (up 0.51% at 3,187.23) gained

US markets ended mixed yesterday, 21 April 2008, as quarterly results from Bank of America fueled worries about bank earnings, while energy and tech stocks gained. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 24.34 points, or 0.19%, to 12,825.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.16 points, or 0.16%, to 1,388.17, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 5.07 points, or 0.21%, to 2,408.04.

New York's main crude oil futures contract, light sweet crude, fell 5 cents to $117.43 per barrel in Asian trading today, 22 April 2008. The benchmark contract had struck a new peak in intraday trading of $117.76 before closing at a record $117.48 on Monday, 21 April 2008 at the New York Mercantile Exchange