Post Session Commentary - Oct 3 2008

Domestic markets observed another bloody day amid raging global financial crises. Concerns about the effectiveness of the US bailout plan for the US economy, weighed on investor’s sentiments. The U.S. House of Representatives are expected to vote today for the rescue package after the Senate approved it on Wednesday. Along with this the investors were also eyed on the inflation number for the week ended 20th September 2008, which is scheduled to be released today evening after market hours. The BSE Sensex ended below 12,600 level and the NSE Nifty below the 3900 mark. Markets opened on extremely negative note on weak global cues due to uncertainty on bailout package. US red ink swamped Asian markets also. Further domestic market continued to remain under pressure without any sign of recovery and kept on trading at new day’s low due to sustained selling pressure across the board. Markets extended its gaps to conclude the day with heavy losses. From the sectoral front, Metal index under performed the benchmark index as witnessed deep cut of more than 7% due to decision of major steel companies in the country to cut their output on the back of slowing demand and fall in international metal prices along with sharp rise in the cost of raw materials. Apart from that, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods, Bank, Consumer Durables, IT and Reality stocks remained out of favor as witnessed most of the selling from these baskets. The market breadth was negative as 1924 stocks closed in red while 669 stocks closed in green and 51 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 529.35 points at 12,526.32 and NSE Nifty ended down by 132.45 points at 3,818.30. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 146.36 points at 4,677.80 and by 141.40 points at 5,465.40. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 13,001.19 and intraday low of 12,472.61.

Losers from the BSE are Tata Steel (10.22%), ICICI Bank Ltd (8.51%), Sterlite Indus (7.84%), Reliance (7.67%), Tata Power (6.13%), HDFC (5.57%), Reliance Infra (5.15%), L&T Ltd (4.68%), Infosys Tech (4.33%), Bharti Airtel (4.25%) and Reliance Com Ltd (2.96%).

Gainers from the BSE are Ranbaxy Lab (4.83%), M&M Ltd (1.70%) and HUL (0.81%).

The BSE Metal index plunged 634.54 points to close at 8,417.11. Major losers are Jindal Steel (11.37%), Tata Steel (10.22%), JSW SL (9.68%), Sterlite Indus (7.84%), Sesa Goa Ltd (7.44%) and Steel Authority (7.09%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index ended down by 512.88 points at 8,426.67 as Aban Offshore (14.22%), Reliance (7.67%), Cairn Indi (7.38%), Gail India (5.51%), Reliance Natural Resources (5.44%) and Essar Oil Ltd (5.34%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE Capital Goods index closed lower by 353.92 points at 10,238.99. Lossers are Punj Lloyd (8.29%), Praj Industries (7.93%), BEML Ltd (6.96%), USha Martin (6.68%), Gammon Indi (5.73%) and Areva (5.18%).

The BSE Bank index dropped by 259.33 points to close at 6,428.95. Major losers are ICICI Bank Ltd (8.51%), Yes bank (4.87%), Federal Bank (4.54%), Bank of Baroda (4.47%), Axis Bank (4.34%) and Indus Ind Bank (3.90%).

The Consumer Durables index lost 127.79 points to close at 2,887.66. As Videocon Ind (7.47%), Rajesh Export (6.70%), Titan Ind (3.69%) and Blue Star L (2.69%) closed in negative territory.

The BSE IT index ended down by 107.62 points at 3,110.28. Lossers are Aptech Ltd (16.78%), NIIT Ltd (8.37%), Oracle Fin (8.07%), Rolta Ind (5.81%), Infosys Tech (4.33%) and Mphasis Ltd (4.08%).