Post Session Commentary - Aug 12 2008

The domestic market at last broke its winning trend to close the session with heavy losses on sustained selling pressures due to disappointing IIP numbers that were down at 5.4% YoY and negative cues from European and Asian markets. Market opened today on positive note tracking favorable cues from US markets and sharp drop in crude oil prices. Crude oil dropped below $113 a barrel and finally settled at $114.45 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Market slipped soon after start to trade in negative territory and extend its losses on IIP numbers. Further, downward trend was continued till the end of session to close in red. From the sectoral front, Metal and Bank stocks closed with deep cut of more than 3%. Along with this, heavy sell off was seen in Reality, IT, Capital Goods and Pharma stocks. However, Consumer FMCG and Oil & Gas stocks were able to gain favor from the market as most of the buying was seen from these baskets. The market breadth was negative as 1100 stocks closed in green while 1556 stocks closed in red and 73 stocks remained unchanged.

June IIP numbers were down at 5.4% (YoY) as against 8.9% of the same period of previous year, but it was above the previous month''s upwardly revised 4.1%. India''s infrastructure sector output grew by 3.4% in June 2008 from a year earlier, slightly below 3.5% annual growth in May 2008.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 291.79 points at 15,212.13 and NSE Nifty ended down by 68.25 points at 4,552.25. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 47.15 points and 50.93 points at 5,935.53 and 7,220.42 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,579.38 and intraday low of 15,124.91.

Lossers from the BSE are Tata Steel (5.71%), Maruti Suzuki (5.23%), JP Associates (4.58%), Sterlite Indus (4.46%), ICICI Bank Ltd (4.20%), HDFC (4.03%), Infosys Tech (3.98%), Tata Power (3.68%) and HDFC Bank Ltd (3.42%).

The BSE Metal index dropped by 475.51 points to close at 12,660.73. As Tata Steel (5.71%), Jindal Steel (5.11%), Sterlite Indus (4.46%), JSW SL (3.61%), Ispat Indus (2.49%) and Hindustan Zinc (2.36%) closed in negative territory.

The BSE Bank index closed down by 265.08 points at 7,437.27. Lossers are IDBI Bank Ltd (5.68%), Axis Bank (5.03%), SBI (4.65%), ICICI Bank Ltd (4.20%), Bank of Baroda (3.98%), Bank of India (3.96%) and PNB (3.54%).

The BSE Reality index ended lower by 113.88 points at 5,685.49. Major lossers are Pheonix Mill (5.42%), Penland Ltd (5.09%), Housing Development (4.25%), Mahindra Indiabull Real (3.68%), Unitech Ltd (2.99%) and Parsvnath (2.16%).

The BSE IT index ended down by 110.09 points at 3,771.98. As Infosys Tech (3.98%), Moser Bayer (2.47%), Mphasis Ltd (2.33%), Wipro Ltd (2.06%), I-flex L (2.01%) and Tech Mahindra (2.00%) closed in negative territory.

The BSE Capital Goods index closed lower by 106.16 points at 12,740.29. Lossers are Jyoti Struct (4.80%), Walchand In (3.01%), Elecon Eng C (2.89%), Crompton Greaves (2.75%), Everest Kanto (2.72%) and Suzlon Energy (2.08%).

The BSE FMCG index gained 15.22 points to close at 2,222.15. Major Gainers are United Spr (1.60%), REI Agro Ltd (1.42%), ITC Ltd (1.19%), Tata Tea Ltd (0.63%) and Ruchi Soya (0.61%).

The BSE IT index closed down by 3.79 points at 3,882.07. Major lossers are Mphasis Ltd (2.40%), Patni Computer (1.37%), TCS Ltd (1.06%), Infosys Tech (0.58%) and Rolta India (0.12%).