Post Session Commentary - Oct 8 2008

The market made a smart pull back from the days lows to pare most of its initial losses on selective buying across the counters. After a strong bloodbath at the initial stage, the market pulled back as buying was witnessed at the lower levels. The market opened with a deep cut that led the Sensex tumbled by 950 points in the intraday trade as the concerns of credit crises took a lead that led both the benchmark indices to touch two year low during the trading session. However, the mid cap and small cap stocks continued to remain under selling pressures.

However after the market hours, the US Federal Reserve along with European Central bank and four other central banks announced an emergency cut in the interest rates to deal with the financial crises. The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate by 0.5% to 1.5%. Along with this, the Fed reduced its emergency lending rate to banks by half a percentage point to 1.75 percent. In Europe, the Bank of England cut its rate by half a point to 4.5 percent, while the European Central Bank sliced its rate to 3.75 percent.

Ranbaxy Laboratories shares bounced back to close with gains of more than 9% on media reports that the US Department of Justice had withdrawn a motion against the drugmaker, which was being probed for allegedly bringing adulterated and misbranded medications into the US.

From the sectoral point, heavy selling was witnessed from the Capital goods, Metal and Bankex space that closed more than 4% each. The Capital Goods also lost more than 3.5%. Among the Sensex pack all 24 stocks ended in red, while 6 in green. The market breadth was negative as 2165 stocks closed in red while 441 stocks closed in green and 46 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 366.88 points at 11,328.36 and NSE Nifty fell by 92.95 points to close at 3,513.65. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 246.68 points and 277.20 points at 4,010.48 and 4,699.19 respectively. The Sensex touched an intraday high of 11,405.73 and low of 10,740.76.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates 9.91% followed by Wipro 7.91%, Sterlite Inds 6.85%, ICICI bank 6.53%, SBI 6.10%, Tata Steel 5.36%, Tata Motors 5.27%, Satyam Comp 5.14%.

The BSE Capital Goods index closed lower by 325.15 points at 8,793.37. Losers are Jyoti structures 11.75%, Walchand Inds 10.16%, Reliance Industrial Infra 9.58%, Suzlon energy 8.79%, Elecon Eng 8.74%, Siemens 8.36%.

The BSE Bank index fell by 266.98 points to close at 5,772.27. Major losers are Yes bank 12.60%, IDBI bank 7.17%, ICICI Bank 6.53%, SBI 6.10%, Federal bank 5.25%, Axis bank 5.37%.

The BSE Metal index plunged 324.57 points to close at 7,209.46. Major losers are Gujarat NRE 16.77%, Jindal Saw 7.92%, Welspun Gujarat 7.23%, Sesa Goa 7.20%, Sterlite Inds 6.85% and Ispat Inds 6.25%.

The BSE IT index ended down by 139.07 points at 2,701.23. Losers are Finance Tech 12.96%, Rolta India 10.57%, Tech Mahindra 9.92%, Oracle Fin 9.07%, Patni Comp 8.31%, Wipro 7.91%.

The BSE Oil & Gas index lost 215.72 points to close at 7,796.46 as Aban Offshore 17.49%, BPCL 8.84%, Essar Oil 7.72%, HPCL 6.58%, IOCL 6.06%, RNRL 5.08% and RPL 3.66% closed in negative territory.

From the Realty basket, Phoenix Mill 12.14%, HDIL 10.51%, Mahindra Life 9.80%, Indiabull Real 9.68%, Anant Raj Inds 9.36%, Penland Ltd 8.06% and Sobha dev 7.48% closed in red.