Post Session Commentary - Oct 7 2008

Domestic markets ended the day mixed after extreme volatile session due to the continuous buying and selling over the ground. BSE Sensex ended below 11,700 level with loss of 0.9% and NSE Nifty above 3,600 mark with marginal gain of 0.12%. The markets today made a sharp turnaround from the yesterday’s lows and opened significantly higher backed by RBI’s strategic move of CRR cut by 50 basis points to 8.50%, which will be implemented from October 11, 2008. Also, the move by market regulator SEBI gave a boost at the initial stage. SEBI relaxed norms for foreign institutional investors for managing the assets under participatory notes (P-Notes) by waiving 40% cap on assets in cash segment in the form of P-Notes as well as removing of bar on offshore derivatives. However the market failed to retain the initial gains and turned volatile to trade with negative bias as weak sentiments were not over yet and investors were looking puzzled. However, most of the Asian markets showed a sign of relief after a big interest rate cut by Australian Central Bank in order to ease the unfolding global credit crises, which has tattered the global market. European markets were also trading higher with volatility. Domestic markets managed to recover during last trading hours but still ended mixed. From the sectoral front, Capital Goods, Bank, Metal, IT and Pharma stocks pulled the market lower. However, Oil & Gas stocks were in limelight as witnessed most of the buying from these baskets. Midcap and Smallcap stocks were sufferers of negative sentiment as ended with cut of more than 2%. Among the Sensex pack all 16 stocks ended in red, while 14 in green. The market breadth was negative as 1822 stocks closed in red while 787 stocks closed in green and 74 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 106.46 points at 11,695.24 while NSE Nifty ended marginally up by 4.25 points at 3,606.60. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 87.07 points at 4,257.16 and by 110.54 points at 4,976.39. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 12,181.43 and intraday low of 11,501.85.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are TCS Ltd (7.02%), L&T Ltd (6.94%), Sterlite Indus (6.35%), HDFC Bank Ltd (6.17%), M&M Ltd (5.84%), Satyam Computer (5.18%), Wipro Ltd (4.07%), Tata Power (3.82%), ITC Ltd (3.08%) and State Bank of India (1.81%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are NTPC Ltd (4.27%), Ranbaxy Lab (3.88%), BHEL (3.26%), Bharti Airtel (2.66%), Reliance (2.04%), Tata Steel (2.03%), Reliance Infra (1.94%), Grasim Indus (1.73%) and Maruti Suzuki (1.68%).

The BSE Capital Goods index closed lower by 376.41 points at 9,118.52. Losers are Praj Indus (7.98%), Bharat Bijli (7.13%), Siemens Ltd (7.05%), L&T Ltd (6.94%), Havells India (5.53%) and Lakshmi MA W (5.08%).

The BSE Bank index dropped by 132.75 points to close at 6,039.25. Major losers are Kotak Bank (9.02%), HDFC Bank Ltd (6.17%), Indus Ind Bank (4.56%), Karnataka Bank (3.53%), State Bank of India (1.81%) and ICICI Bank (1.07%).

The BSE Metal index plunged 102.62 points to close at 7,534.03. Major losers are Welspan Guajrat Sr (12.17%), JSW Steel (10.91%), Hindustan Zinc (9.30%), Gujarat NRE C (7.46%), Sterlite Indus (6.35%) and NMDC Ltd (4.98%).

The BSE IT index ended down by 88.95 points at 2,840.30. Losers are NIIT Ltd (14.64%), Orbit Co (11.25%), Tech Mahindra (10.90%), Financ Tech (8.74%), TCS Ltd (7.02%) and Aptech Ltd (6.86%).

The Pharma index lost 60.55 points to close at 3,427.52. As Opto Circuit (7.72%), BIL Care (7.17%), Dr Reddys Lab (5.70%), Glenmark Pharma (5.45%), Sun Pharma (5.27%) and Biocon Ltd (4.92%) closed in negative territory.

The BSE Oil & Gas index gained 102.68 points to close at 8,012.68 as Gail India (2.87%), Reliance Pet (2.09%), Reliance (2.04%), ONGC Ltd (1.25%) and Reliance Natural Resources (0.88%) ended in positive territory.