Post Session Commentary - June 18 2008

Indian market ended with loses after giving up yesterday’s gains due to heavy selling pressure over the ground. Weak opening of the European Markets also added to the negative sentiment. The domestic market opened in green but showed a lot of volatility since the initial bell. It was moving between positive and negative territory till mid session. But the market lost the grip after the mid session to close on the back foot despite easing oil prices.

The deferment of the meeting between the UPA and the Left parties over the Indo US nuclear deal, which was scheduled today also adds to the negative sentiments in the market. The Nifty closed below 4600 and the Sensex below 15500 levels. The crude oil price extended its decline today to stand below $134 a barrel. From the sectoral front, only FMCG and Auto stocks witnessed buying favour, while all other stocks closed in red. Metal, Capital Goods, Banking and Reality stocks were major losers as most of the selling was seen on theses baskets. The market breadth was negative as 1,254 stocks closed in green while 1,402 stocks closed in red.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 274.59 points at 15,422.31 and NSE Nifty ended down by 70.60 points at 4,582.4. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Cap closed negative with decrease of 40.39 points and 6.01 points at 6,359.79 and 7,775.29 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high 15,789.62 and intraday low of 15,390.22.

Losers from the BSE are ICICI Bank Ltd (4.25%), HDFC Bank Ltd (3.40%), Tata Steel (3.18%), L&T Ltd (3.12%), JP Assoc (2.93%), Reliance Infra (2.83%), Reliance Infra (4.13%), DLF Ltd (2.68%), Bharti Airtel (2.67%) and BHEL (2.64%).

The Metal index closed lower by 265.38 points at 15,251.48. Losers are Gujarat Nre C (3.89%), Hindustan Zinc (3.66%), Tata Steel (3.18%), Steel Auth (3.17%), Ispat Industries (2.68%), and Jindal Steel (2.45%).

The Banking index closed down by 260.73 points at 7,306.44. Losers are Axis Bank (5.16%), ICICI Bank Ltd (4.25%), Kotak Bank (4.23%), Bank of Baroda (3.90%), Bank of Barod (5.87%), HDFC Bank Ltd (3.40%) and Union Bank (3.08%).

The Capital Goods index dropped by 243.94 points to close at 12,119.33. Major losers are Praj Indus (3.91%), Areva (3.49%), Kirloskar Br (3.29%), L&T Ltd (3.12%), Kir Oil Eng (2.66%) and BHEL (2.64%).

The Reality Index closed lower by 213.41 points at 5,885.75. Losers are Anant Raj Ind (7.46%) along with Indiabulls Real (6.07%), Purvankara (4.44%), Sobha Dev (3.36%), Unitech Ltd (3.31%) and Pheonix Mill (3.04%).

The Oil & Gas index closed down by 175.44 points at 10,066.35. As Essar Oil Ltd (3.03%), Reliance Pet (2.66%), Aban Offshore (2.65%), Reliance Natural Resources (1.97%), Reliance (1.96%) and Cairn India (0.95%) closed in negative territory.

The FMCG index increased by 8.52 points to close at 42,310.11 as Rei Agro Ltd (3.10%), United Spr (2.48%), United Brew (1.72%), Marico Ltd (1.47%) and ITC Ltd (0.84%) closed in positive territory.

The Auto index advanced by 4.77 points to close at 4,179.54. Major gainers are Hero Honda Motors (2.43%), Bosch Ltd (1.90%), Maruti Suzuki (1.24%), Ashok Leyland (0.76%) and TVS Motors (0.28%)