Post Market Commentary - Aug 28 2008

Markets showed sharp cut in the final trading hours to close with losses backed by heavy selling pressure due to the inflation fears. Nifty and Sensex slipped towards 4,200 and 14,000 mark respectively. Indian market opened with modest gains tracking positive cues from US markets but soon become unstable on rising inflation worries and expiry of August series derivatives contracts. Further domestic market continued to trade weak after the mid session without showing any sign of recovery. Market slipped sharply during last trading hours to close in red. Weak European markets also contributed to the selling pressure. Along with this rise in crude oil prices in international markets also fueled to the negative sentiment. Light, sweet crude for the October delivery raised $1.88 to settle at $118.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after it touched the peak of $119.63. From the sectoral front, all indices closed in red and Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Reality stocks closed with deep cut of more than 2%. Along with this heavy selling pressure was visible in Metal, Bank and IT stocks. Midcap and Smallcap stocks lost more than 1%. The market breadth was negative as 1721 stocks closed in red while 898 stocks closed in green and 97 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 248.45 points at 14,048.34 and NSE Nifty ended down by 80.10 points at 4,214.00. The BSE Mid Caps closed with losses of 77.58 points at 5,608.85 along with Small Caps ended down by 77.61 points at 6,782.30. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,347.19 and intraday low of 14,002.43.

Lossers from the BSE are Hindalco (12.60%), Reliance (3.45%), Reliance Infra (3.45%), BHEL (3.12%), TCS Ltd (3.05%), BHEL (2.34%), Reliance Com Ltd (2.98%), L&T Ltd (2.91%), Wipro Ltd (2.67%) and ICICI Bank Ltd (2.30%).

The BSE Capital Goods index lost 262.37 points to close at 11,492.50. Major lossers are Lakshmi Ma W (4.28%), Alstom Proje (4.12%), Praj Indus (3.69%), Thermax Ltd (3.61%), Walchand In (3.19%) and BHEL (3.12%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index closed lower by 247.81 points at 9,407.79. Lossers are Aban Offshore (4.92%), Essar Oil Ltd (4.53%), BPCL (4.38%), HPCL (3.98%), Reliance (3.45%) and Gail India (2.56%).

The BSE Metal index dropped by 224.79 points to close up at 11,925.15. Lossers are Hindalco (12.60%), Nalco (5.94%), NMDC Ltd (4.47%), Jai Corp Ltd (4.01%), Welspan Gujarat Sr (3.57%) and Ispat Indus (2.44%).

The BSE Bank index closed down by 119.04 points at 6,596.41. Lossers are Indus Ind Bank (5.61%), IOC (3.81%), Yes Bank (3.67%), Kotak Bank (3.15%), Allahabad Bank (2.89%) and ICICI Bank Ltd (2.30%).

The BSE Reality index ended lower by 83.97 points at 4,753.07 As Housing Development (5.51%), Anant Raj Industries (4.30%), Sobha Dev (3.65%), Ansal Infra (2.86%), Orbit Co (2.14%) and DLF Ltd (2.08%) closed in negative territory.

The BSE IT index lost 38.78 points to close at 3,853.39. Major lossers are Tech Mahindra (5.22%), Aptech Ltd (5.14%), I-Flex (3.94%), TCS Ltd (3.05%), Wipro Ltd (2.67%) and Financ Tech (2.42%).