Post Session Commentary - Oct 14 2008

The benchmark indices opened with strong gains following previous day''s rally and touched a high of 11870.22 points before closing at 11483.4 points. The domestic market pared more than half of its initial gains on account of profit booking at higher level but still managed to end above dotted line. Sentiments were high during earlier trading as governments across the world tried to keep financial system ease by infusing fresh liquidity. However, this was not sufficient to brush up the investor''s confidence as most of the investors were willing to book the profit before any damage happens to their funds. BSE Sensex ended above 11,400 level along with NSE Nifty above 3,300 mark. Further market was not able to maintain the same momentum and started losing ground since mid session. Finally, market managed to close in positive territory but with minimal gains. On the sectoral front, most of the buying was seen in Pharma, IT, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Bank stocks. However, Metal and Consumer Durable stocks remained out of favour as witnessed most of the selling from these baskets. Midcap and Smallcap stocks were in buyer''s radar and ended with gains of more than 1% and 2% respectively. Among the Sensex pack 19 stocks ended in positive terrain while 11 in red. The market breadth was positive as 1656 stocks closed in green while 972 stocks closed in red and 55 stocks remained unchanged on BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 174.31 points at 11,483.4 and NSE Nifty ended up by 37.95 points at 3,518.65. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 61.45 points at 3892.03 and by 101.74 points at 4,615.89. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 11,870.22 and intraday low of 10,410.49.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Satyam Computer (7.38%), Infosys Tech (5.87%), JP Associates (5.20%), ICICI Bank (5.18%), Reliance Infra (5.09%), Tata Power (5.06%), Bharti Airtel (3.30%), Reliance (3.14%), DLF Ltd (3.07%) and Wipro Ltd (3%).

Losers from BSE Sensex pack are Reliance Communication Ltd (4.83%), Hindalco (4.11%), ONGC Ltd (3.81%), HDFC Bank (3.47%), NTPC Ltd (2.7%), M&M Ltd (2.55%) and OITC Ltd (0.97%).

The BSE Pharma index surged 151.46 points to close at 3,404.63. Major gainers are Glenmark Pharma (17.38%), Sun Pharma (9.19 %), Lupin Ltd (5.60%), Dr Reddy’s Lab (5.11%), Pirama Health (5.03%) and Matrix Lab (4.76%).

The IT index gained 149.45 points to close at 2,939.87 as Rolta India (20.12%), PAtni computer (12.5%), NIIT Ltd (7.97%), Financ Tech (7.71%), Satyam Computer (7.38%) and Infosys Tech (5.87%) in positive territory.

The BSE Capital Goods index closed higher by 100.08 points at 8,776.2. Gainers are Usha Martin (16.71%), Aiaengineer (10.79%), Reliance Industrial Infra (9.30%), Bharat Bijli (8.75%), Havells India (6.61%) and Crompton Greaves (5.53%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index advanced by 73.64 points to close at 7,623.4 as Reliance (3.14%), Cairn India (2.53%), HPCL (2.43%), Essar Oil Ltd (1.43%) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.31%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE Metal index plunged 135.32 points to close at 6,851.71. Major losers are Sesa Goa Ltd (7.26%), JSW Steel (6.6%), Steel Authority (6.29%), Hindalco (4.11%), Jindal Steel (3.77%) and Hindustan Zinc (2.70%).

The BSE Consumer Durables index ended marginally down by 9.72 points at 2,330.76. Losers are Blue Star L (3.23%) and Titan Ind (2.49%.