Post Session Commentary - June 17 2008

Indian market ended with handsome gains due to heavy buying support across the counters. The domestic market opened by showing a lot of volatility but bounced back and maintained the strength since afternoon. Further it continued to trade higher backed by easing crude oil price and favoring opening of the European markets that gave a support to the market. The BSE Sensex closed above 15600 mark and the NSE Nifty 4600 mark. The crude oil price reached an all time high of $139.89 a barrel on Monday and it slid back to $132.84 today before ending the day at $134.61. From the sectoral front, all indices closed in green and banking, capital goods, reality and oil & gas stocks held most of the gains of market. Metal index recovered after mid session and IT stocks recovered during final trading hours. The bank index outperformed as it advanced 4.29%. The market breadth was positive as 1,802 stocks closed in green while 882 stocks closed in red.

Regarding the advance tax payments, SBI has recorded a 32% growth in advance tax payment to Rs663 crore for April-June 2008 as against Rs503 crore reported last year. The ICICI bank’s tax outgo during the period stood at Rs340 crore from Rs250 crore last year. HDFC Bank has paid Rs140 crore making a growth of 40% over the last years of Rs95 crore. From the Oil and Gas sector, Reliance industries paid Rs340 crore during April-June 2008 representing a growth of 15% over the last year’s Rs295 crore.

The finance minister has projected a direct tax collection of Rs 3,65,000 crore for the current fiscal.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 301.08 points at 15,696.90 and NSE Nifty ended up by 80.50 points at 4,653.00. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Cap closed positive with increase of 100.46 points and 112.19 points at 6,400.18 and 7,781.30 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high 15,732.75 and intraday low of 15,357.98.

Gainers from the BSE are HDFC (5.99%), Maruti Suzuki (5.22%), HDFC Bank (4.87%), ONGC (4.77%), SBI (4.57%), JP Assoc (4.51%), Reliance Infra (4.13%), L&T Ltd (3.73%) and DLF Ltd (2.99%).

The Banking index closed up by 311.54 points at 7,567.17. Gainers are IOB (8.49%), Axis Bank (7.89%), Kotak Bank (7.45%), Bank of India (5.92%), Bank of Barod (5.87%), OBC (5.60%) and Canara Bank (5.34%).

The Capital Goods index increased by 260.07 points to close at 12,363.27. Major gainers are Kirloskar Br Sr (4.82%), Areva (3.98%), L&T Ltd (3.73%), Punj Lloyd (3.48%), Alstom Proje (3.26%) and Praj Indus (2.91%).

The Reality Index closed higher by 228.32 points at 6,099.19. Gainers are Indiabulls Real (6.34%) along with Unitech Ltd (4.70%), Ansal Infra (4.36%), Anant Raj (4.46%), Pheonix Mill (3.90%), DLF Ltd (2.99%) and Housing Development (2.75%).

The Oil & Gas index closed up by 225.73 points at 10,241.79. As ONGC (4.77%), Essar Oil Ltd (3.92%), Reliance Petroleum (2.96%), Reliance Natural Resources (2.91%), HPCL (2.16%) and Reliance (1.94%) closed in positive territory.

The Metal index closed up by 142.09 points at 15,516.86. Gainers are SH Precoated (8.90%), Ispat Industries (3.29%), Jindal Steel (3.29%), Steel Auth (3.17%), Bhushan Steel (1.70%), and Gujarat Nre C (1.50%).

The Consumer Durables index increased by 79.52 points to close at 4,037.64 as Titan Ind (5.36%), Gitanjali Ge (1.57%), Blue Star L (0.95%), Videocon India (0.94%) and Lloyd Ele En (0.91%) closed in positive territory.

IT index advanced by 26.85 points to close at 4,440.20. Major gainers are Aptech Ltd (9.18%), Financ Tech (8.44%), I-Flex (4.51%), Tech Mahindra (3.03%) and NIIT Ltd (2.42%)