Post Session Commentary - May 20 2008

Indian market closed in deep red due to unfavoring cues from the Asian markets as well as surging crude oil prices above $127 a barrel led to the heavy selling across key sectors. The domestic market opened on the weak note tracking the negative global cues and kept on hovering in the negative territory through out the session and showed no sign of recovery. Further, it turned in uneven, continued to trade sharply lower through out the trading session. Investors took cautious approach to book their position. From the sectoral front, the banking and reality stocks were not in favour on account of heavy selling pressure. The market breadth was negative as 1431 stocks closed in red while 1292stocks closed in green.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 204.76 at 17,230.18 Nifty fell by 52.75 points to close at 5,104.95. The BSE Mid Cap closed lower by 23.64 points at 7106.06 and Small Cap ended higher by 38 35 points at 8,658.61.

Losers from the BSE are Jaiprakash Associates (5.22%), Reliance Infra (4.53%), BHEL (3.28%), State bank of India (2.85%), Bharti Airtel (2.65%), NTPC Ltd (2.64%), HDFC Bank Ltd (2.51%) and TCS Ltd (2.40%).

The Bankex index fell by 177.43 points to close at 8,763.85 as Bank of India (5.14%), Axis bank (3.58%), State bank of India (2.85%), CBOP (2.63%), HDFC Bank Ltd (2.51%) and Yes bank (2.34%) closed in negative territory.

The Realty index closed lower by 150.15 points at 7,894.10. Losers are Pheonix Mill (5.15%), Mahindra Life (3.00%), Unitech Ltd (2.67%), Indiabull Real (2.52%), Anant Raj Ind (2.35%), and DLF Ltd (1.95%).

The PSU stocks ended down by 142.12 points to close at 7651.74 and the losers are Bank of India (5.14%), BHEL (3.28%), Corporation (2.88%), NMDC Ltd (2.87%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (2.83%) and State bank of India (2.85%).

The Capital Goods index declined by 133.27 points to close at 13,563.48. Major losers are BHEL (3.28%), ABB Ltd (3.19%), Praj Industries Ltd (2.17%), Kirloskar Br (2.03%), Areva (1.84%) and Elecon Eng C (1.78%).

The Oil & Gas index closed lower by 119.97 points at 11,169.61. Lossers are Essar Oil Ltd (3.26%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (2.83%), GAIL India (2.50%), Bharat Petrolium Corporation Ltd (2.49%) and ONG Corp Ltd (1.54%).