Post Session Commentary - Aug 26 2008

Markets had made smart recovery on sustained buying during final trading hours that pushed markets to close marginally in green. Indian market opened on weak note tracking negative cues from global markets and continued to trade lower due to sustained selling pressure. Some buying helped benchmarks to pull back from lower levels but market was not able to sustain the momentum and turned choppy. Further, domestic market started recovering since mid afternoon trade and finally managed to close with marginal gains. Decline in Crude by $2.31 a barrel to $112.80 also helped markets a bit. NSE Nifty ended above 4,300 mark and BSE Sensex crossed 14,400 level. From the sectoral front, interest rate sensitive Bank and Auto stocks were back in demand and outperformed the benchmark index. Along with that, buying was continued in IT, Capital Goods and Pharma stocks. However, Oil & Gas, Metal and Reality stocks remained out of favor as most of the selling was seen from these baskets. The market breadth was positive as 1199 stocks closed in green while 1389 stocks closed in red and 104 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 31.87 points at 14,482.22 and NSE Nifty ended marginally up by 2.15 points at 4,337.50. The BSE Mid Caps closed with gains of 3.56 points at 5,744.77 while Small Caps ended down by 9.63 points at 6,912.62. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,495.27 and intraday low of 14,286.38.

Gainers from the BSE are HDFC Bank Ltd (3.92%), Satyam Computer (3.25%), Wipro Ltd (2.14%), BHEL (1.96%), M&M Ltd (1.91%), TCS Ltd (1.77%), Reliance Infra (1.77%), ICICI Bank Ltd (1.68%) and HUL (1.48%).

Lossers from the BSE are Reliance (2.30%), JP Associates (1.85%), Tata Steel (1.37%), HDFC (0.83%), Reliance Com Ltd (0.62%), Sterlite In (0.57%), Bharti Airtel (0.49%), Infosys Tech (0.32%) and Tata Motors (0.18%).

The BSE Bank index closed up by 116.82 points at 6,862.54. Gainers are Indus Ind bank (5.18%), HDFC Bank Ltd (3.92%), Bank of Baroda (2.95%), Kotak Bank (2.82%), ICICI Bank Ltd (1.68%) and Punjab National Bank (1.52%).

The BSE Auto index ended higher by 50.62 points at 3,916.49. As Bosch Ltd (13.61%), Apollo Tyre (5.80%), M&M Ltd (1.91%), Bajaj Auto (1.38%), Maruti Suzuki (1.17%) and Exide Indus (1.16%) closed in positive territory.

The BSE Capital Goods index ended up by 35.92 points at 11,893.41. Major gainers are Punj Lloyd (3.16%), Crompton Greaves (2.20%), BHEL (1.96%), SKF India (1.36%), Siemens Ltd (0.70%) and L&T Ltd (0.55%).

The BSE IT index advanced by 33.05 points to close up at 3,895.48. Gainers are NIIT Ltd (3.31%), Satyam Computer (3.25%), Tech Mahindra (2.88%), HCL Tech (2.77%), Wipro Ltd (2.14%) and TCS Ltd (1.77%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index closed lower by 116.85 points at 9,768.34. Lossers are Reliance (2.30%), Aban Offshore (1.27%), Cairn India (0.16%) and Essar Oil Ltd (0.05%).

The BSE Metal index lost 61.29 points to close at 12,182.08. Major lossers are Jai Corp Ltd (2.07%), NMDC Ltd (1.92%), Gujarat Nre C (1.91%), Welspan Gujarat Sr (1.63%), Tata Steel (1.37%) and JSW SL (0.87%).