Post Session Commentary - Oct 31 2008

The Indian market ended the day on strong note on heavy buying interest over the ground. Drop in inflation number for the fifth successive week and firm global markets lifted the sentiments. Market rose more than 8% also on speculation that RBI may ease monetary policy following rate cuts across the world, including in the US, China and Japan this week. Bank of Japan cut rates for the first time in seven years, to 0.30% from 0.50% joining global efforts to ease the financial crisis. Today market started the session after a holiday with handsome gains tracking positive cues from global markets. Stocks continued to gain ground on continued buying across the board. However, market gave up some of initial gains during afternoon on profit booking, but further gathered momentum and continued its northward journey till end. The buying support was seen across all the sectoral indices mainly led by the Metal, Oil & Gas, Bank, Capital Goods, IT and Auto stocks. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks were also on buyers'' radar.

Among the Sensex pack 28 stocks ended in green terrain and 2 in red. The market breadth was in favour of advances as 1577 stocks closed in green while 916 stocks closed in red and 82 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 743.55 points at 9,788.06 and NSE Nifty ended up by 188.55 points at 2,885.60. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 105.54 points 3,200.02 and by 90.50 points at 3,765.11. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,870.42 and intraday low of 9,361.66.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are M&M Ltd (23.09%), HDFC (17.48%), JP Associates (16.55%), ICICI Bank (15.50%), Sterlite Industries (14.48%), Reliance (13.81%), Reliance Communication Ltd (13.76%), Hindalco (13.26%), Tata Steel (12.14%) and Tata Power (11.86%).

Only two losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Ranbaxy Lab (1.97%) and TCS Ltd (0.93%).

Inflation for the week ended 18th October 2008 came in at 10.68% as against 11.07% of previous week. It stood at 3.11% in the year-ago period. Inflation declined for the fifth consecutive week along with decline in inflation rate of three commodity groups - primary articles, fuel and manufactured products.

The BSE Metal index ended higher by (10.20%) or 496.73 points at 5,367.60. Major gainers are JSW Steel (32.70%), Jindal Steel (15.33%), Sterlite Industries (14.48%), Hindalco (13.26%), Tata Steel (12.84%) and Wespan Guajrat Sr (8.92%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index gained (9.11%) or 517.29 points to close at 6,195.62. Major gainers are Reliance (13.81%), Aban Offshore (13.20%), Essar Oil Ltd (11.10%), Cairn India (10.85%), Reliance Petroleum (6.61%) and Reliance Natural Resources (5.83%).

The Bank index closed higher by (7.21%) or 336.90 points to close at 5,011.24 as ICICI Bank (15.50%), Yes Bank (8.81%), HDFC Bank (8.25%), Bank of India (8.11%), Axis Bank (6.59%) and Canara Bank (5.09%) in positive territory.

The BSE Auto index ended up by (6.39%) or 161.22 points at 2,685.62. Gainers are M&M Ltd (23.09%), Bosch Ltd (15.08%), Tata Motors (9.11%), Escorts Ltd (8.69%), Apollo Tyre (5.05%) and Cummins India (4.59%).

The BSE IT index surged (5.77%) or 156.17 points at 2,861.94. Gainers are HCL Tech (13.97%), Rolta India (12.17%), NIIT Ltd (9.69%), Moser Bayer (9.12%), Oracle Fin (8.37%) and Satyam Computer (7.61%).

The BSE Capital Goods index gained (5.00%) or 333.90 points to close at 7,017.61 as Usha Martin (17.62%), Walchand In (8.77%), BHEL (8.72%), Praj Industries (8.39%), Havells India (7.85%) and Jyoti Structures (6.53%) ended in negative territory.