Post Session Commentary - June 25 2008

Indian market ended with gains due to continuous buying support in key indices since afternoon. It was a smart pull back rally for the markets in last hour of trade after remained unstable for major part of the day. The domestic market opened today on the down beat note and plunged to a new low as witnessed sharp sell off in opening trade. This was due to the RBI’s hike in the key lending rate and the CRR by 50 basis points each to tame inflation that hit a 13-year high early in June. As a second increase this month in its repo rate, the RBI raised the key lending rate to 8.5% from 8.0% with immediate effect. RBI will raise the cash reserve ratio to 8.75% from 8.25% in two stages, to 8.5% from July 5 and to 8.75% from July 19. Further, market gained ground as investors bought shares at lower levels to close in green. At present Left-UPA political crises passed, but N-issue still exists after today’s meeting between the government and left parties with a decision to meet again. From the sectoral front, metal, oil & gas, capital goods and reality stocks led the advance, while banks, IT and FMCG continued to drag. The market breadth was positive as 1,370 stocks closed in green and 1,264 stocks closed in red while 73stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 113.49 points at 14,220.07 and NSE Nifty ended up by 61.55 points at 4,252.65. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Cap closed positive with rise of 33.92 points and 51.60 points 5,746.66 and 7,058.02 respectively. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap ended with improvement of 1.0% each. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high 14,248.65 and intraday low of 13,731.54.

Gainers from the BSE are Reliance Com Ltd (7.20%), Tata Steel (4.46%), DLF Ltd (4.19%), Reliance Infra (4.17%), TCS Ltd (4.00%), Bharti Airtel (3.92%), Ranbaxy Lab (3.83%), BHEL (3.67%) and Relaince (3.35%).

Losers from the BSE are HDFC (4.29%), Wipro Ltd (2.91%), Cipla Ltd (2.54%), Infosys Tech (2.48%), ITC Ltd (2.46%), Satyam Computer (1.96%), Grasim Industries (1.75), Tata Motors (1.50%) and ICICI Bank Ltd (1.06%).

The Metal index closed higher by 396.32 points at 13,765.14. Gainers are Gujarat Nre C (7.62%), JSW SL (4.72%), Tata Steel (4.46%), Welspan Gujaraqt Sr (3.85%), Steel Authority (3.18%), Maharashtra Sea (2.76%), and Jindal Steel (2.52%).

The Oil & Gas index closed up by 265.13 points at 9,411.56. As Aban Offshore (5.00%), Essar Oil Ltd (4.98%), HPCL (4.90%), Reliance Pet (4.03%), Reliance (3.35%) and Cairn India (2.80%) closed in positive territory.

The Capital Goods index advanced by 162.58 points to close at 10,802.18. Major gainers are Areva (7.69%), Punj Lloyd (6.22%), Seimens Ltd (4.02%), BHEL (3.67%), Elecon Eng C (3.42%) and Praj Industries (3.07%).

The Reality Index closed higher by 109.41 points at 5,207.85. Gainers are Unitech Ltd (7.56%) along with Purvankara (7.33%), Penland Ltd (4.49%), Mahindra Life (4.21%), DLF Ltd (4.19%) and Parsvnath (2.66%).

The IT index went down by 46.56 points to close at 4,094.95 as Wipro Ltd (2.91%), Infosys Tech (2.48%), Patni Computer (1.96%), Satyam Computer (1.96%) and HCL Techn (1.64%) closed in negative territory.

The Banking index closed down by 23.85 points at 6,475.81. Lossers are OBC (6.17%), Allahabad Bank (4.72%), Canara Bank (3.43%), Yes Bank (2.74%), Kotak Bank (2.49%) and Union Bank (2.23%).