Post Session Commentary -July 24 2008

The domestic market concluded the day in red as investors eyed on inflation data, which is scheduled today and it is expected that to cross 12% for the week ended 12th July 2008. The Indian market opened significantly higher on the back of positive cues from the global markets and drop in crude oil prices that fell by 3.1% to $124.48 per barrel, which is lowest level in more than six weeks. Further it was not able to sustain the momentum and slipped to negative territory ahead of the announcement of the inflation figures. After a firm start, the market changed its gears to trade downward to close with losses. The BSE Sensex touched the 15,000 mark during early trading but ended below 14,800 and NSE Nifty closed below 4,500. From the sectoral front, the Oil & Gas index index was in limelight as was able go gain favor from market. While the Metal, Capital Goods, bank and IT stocks remained out of favor as witnesses most of the selling from these baskets. The market breadth was negative as 1258 stocks closed in green while 1458 stocks closed in red and 67 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 165.27 points at 14,777.01 and NSE Nifty ended down by 49.20 points at 4,433.55. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Cap closed with losses of 35.04 points and 16.53 points to 5,580.90 and 6,796.11 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,130.09 and intraday low of 14,608.05.

Losers from the BSE are TCS Ltd (6.49%), Tata Steel (5.40%), ACC Ltd (5.13%), Reliance Com Ltd (4.52%), SBI (4.24%), BHEL (2.71%), NTPC Ltd (2.55%), Infosys Tech (2.38%), Satyam Comp (2.21%) and Bharti Airtel (2.21%).

The Metal index closed down by 374.27 points at 12,696.25. Lossers are Sh Precoated (6.61), Jindal steel (6.11%), Hindustan Zinc (3.71%), Sesa Goa Ltd (3.31%), Steel Authority (2.71%), and Gujarat Nre C (2.71%).

The BSE Capital Goods index lost 220.61 points to close at 12,119.16. Major lossers are Aiaengineer (4.45%), Jyoti Struct (4.11%), Praj Indus (3.24%), BHEL (2.71%), Alstom Proje (2.66%) and Havells India (2.21%).

The BSE Bank index closed lower by 128.02 points at 7,163.48. Major lossers are PNB (5.14%), Bank of Baroda (4.27%), SBI (4.24%), Bank of India (4.08%), OBC (3.72%), Union Bank (3.58%), and Indian Overseas Bank (3.22%).

The BSE IT index ended down by 103.47 points at 3,630.04. As DLF Ltd (8.44%), TCS Ltd (6.49%), Tech Mahindra (6.23%), Financ Techn (4.36%), NIIT Ltd (2.71%), Infosys Tech (2.38%) and HCL Tech (2.35%) closed in negative territory.

The BSE Consumer Durables index lost 87.35 points to close at 3,6,49.90. Major lossers are Lloyd Ele En (3.08%), Titan India (3.06%), Blue Star Ltd (2.56%), Videocon Industries (2.34%), Gitanjali Ge (1.44%) and Rajesh Exports (0.80%).

The Oil & Gas index ended up by 148.81 points at 10,013.40. As Reliance Natural Resources (9.47%), ONGC (3.25%), BPCL (2.25%), Cairn India (1.84%), Reliance (1.81%) and IOC (0.90%) closed in positive territory.