Post Session Commentary - Aug 21 2008

The domestic market plunged sharply to conclude the day in deep red on the back of heavy selling pressures across the sectors. Market opened on downbeat note tracking weak cues from the Asian markets along with rise in crude oil prices and rising inflation worries. Crude oil on Wednesday stood at $114.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising for a second day. Further market continued to lose ground ahead of inflation number for the week ended 9th August 2008, due to be released today evening. Finally, market landed to extremely negative territory on enormous selling pressure during final hours of trading. Weak European markets also fueled the negative sentiment. NSE Nifty ended below 4,300 mark and BSE Sensex below 14,300 level. From the sectoral front, Bank and Reality stocks closed with deep cut of more than 5%. Along with that, Capital Goods, Metal, Oil & Gas, Power, IT and Pharma stocks also got hammered as witnessed most of the selling pressure. BSE Midcap and Smallcap stocks lost more than 2% and 1.5% respectively. The market breadth was negative as 733 stocks closed in green while 1915 stocks closed in red and 65stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 434.50 points at 14,243.73 and NSE Nifty ended down by 131.90 points at 4,283.85. The BSE Mid Caps closed with losses of 118.91 points at 5,707.46 and Small Cap ended lower by 129.21 points 6,937.02. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,646.98 and intraday low of 14,201.18.

Only one gainer from the BSE is Ranbaxy Lab ended up by (1.53%).

Lossers from the BSE are SBI (7.10%), HDFC Bank Ltd (5.82%), NTPC Ltd (5.68%), DLF Ltd (5.55%), Reliance Infra (5.45%), ICICI Bank Ltd (5.19%), JP Associates (4.78%) and HDFC (4.41%).

The BSE Capital Goods index dropped by 361.79 points to close at 11,907.73. Major lossers are Walchand In (7.09%), Punj Lloyd (5.96%), Gammon Indi (5.60%), Suzlon Energy (4.62%), Elecon Eng C (3.42%) and Alstom Proje (2.87%).

The BSE Bank index lost 357.87 points to close at 6,577.91. Major losers are SBI (7.10%), HDFC Bank Ltd (5.82%), Kotak Bank (4.53%), PNB (3.96), IDBI Bank Ltd (3.88%) and Yes Bank (3.78%).

The Metal index closed down by 308.74 points at 12,166.91. Lossers are Ispat Indus (5.66%), Nalco (5.15%), Sesa Goa Ltd (5.15%), Hindalco (3.33%), Tata Steel (2.63%), and Jai Corp Ltd (2.35%).

The BSE Reality index ended lower by 262.99 points at 4,944.82. As Housing Development (24.96%), Indiabull Real (7.36%), DLF Ltd (5.55%), Unitech Ltd (5.35%), Penland Ltd (5.24%) and Sobha Dev (5.20%) closed in negative territory.

The Oil & Gas index ended down by 194.35 points at 9,838.12. As HPCL (6.43%), IOC (5.76%), Reliance Nat Res (5.39%), BPCL (4.67%), Essar Oil Ltd (3.34%) and ONGC (2.60%) closed in negative territory.

The BSE Power index closed lower by 86.87 points at 2,608.35. Lossers are NTPC Ltd (5.68%), Reliance Infra (5.45%), Neyveli Lig (4.69%), Suzlon Energy (4.62%), Lanco Infra (4.19%), and BHEL (3.75%).