Post Market Commentary - Nov 18 2008

The domestic market continued its losing trend for the fifth consecutive session on the back of weakening economic concerns as well as fall in global equity markets. The domestic market opened with a deep cut and kept on hovering in the negative territory throughout the trading session. The investors took cautious approach before booking further positions. Though encouraging statement from the finance minister failed to give a boost to the market. The finance Minister said that the government will take steps to stimulate the domestic economy to compensate for the downside caused by the downturn in the world economy. From the sectoral front, the IT, Power, Bankex, PSU and Metal index were in the firing line as most selling was witnessed from these baskets. The market breadth was weak as 1831 stocks closed in red while 661 stocks closed in green.

The Finance Minister said the government may consider cutting excise duty on some items as a part of efforts to boost factory output. He said the government may consider cutting excise duty on some items as a part of efforts to boost factory output. He, however, added that the country could miss its annual export target of $200 billion for this fiscal year as the slowdown in developed nations trims overseas demand.

The Reserve Bank Of India governor Duvvuri Subbarao said, "We are constantly monitoring the situation. We will take appropriate action at the appropriate time”.

Among the Sensex pack 23 stocks ended in red territory while 7 stock ended in green territory. The market breadth was negative as 1594 stocks closed in green while 924 stocks closed in red and 74 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 353.81 points at 8,937.20 and NSE Nifty ended down by 116.4 points at 2,683.15. The BSE Mid Caps closed with losses of 73.04 points at 3,060.32 and Small Cap ended down by 102.73 points at 3,558.66. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,169.05 and intraday low of 8,871.71.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Wipro down by (8.77%) along with NTPC 7.88%, ACC Ltd 7.17%, TCS 6.96%, ICICI bank 6.79%, Maruti Suzuki 6.74% and Bharti Airtel 6.32%.

The BSE IT index dropped by (4.70%) or 120.73 points to close at 2,447.76. Losers are Wipro 8.77%, Mosear Baer 8.58%, NIIT Ltd 7.56%, HCL Tech 7.45%, Finance Tech 7.09%, TCS 6.96%.

The Power index ended down by (4.67%) or 77.07 points at 1,571.98 as NTPC 7.88%, Suzlon Energy 7.08%, Crompton Greaves 6.61%, ABB 5.77%, Tata Power 5.75%, Reliance Power 5.28% and Power Grid 5.09% closed in negative territory.

The BSE Bankex index ended lower by (4.51%) or 223.56 points at 4,732.48. Major losers are Kotak bank 9.95%, Karnataka bank 8.23%, Indus Ind Bank 7.83%, IOB 7.61%, ICICI Bank 6.79%, SBI 5.12% and Yes bank 5.06%.

The BSE Consumer Durables index lost (3.12%) or 62.51 points to close at 1,940.40. Major losers are Gitanjali GE (8.53%), Videocon Ind (3.59%), Videocon Ind (3.42%), Reliance (7.37%) and Blue Star L (0.54%).

The BSE Metal index lost (4.38%) or 206.82 points to close at 4,516.28. Losers are Nalco 13.41%, Jai Corp 9.78%, Jindal Saw 9.27%, Jindal Steel 6.61%, NMDC 6.51% and Hind Zinc 5.25%.

The BSE Realty index ended lower by (3.60%) or 68.64 points at 1,838.87 as Unitech 7.72%, Ansal Infra 7.17%, Parsvnath 4.88%, Omaxe 4.77%, Orbitco 4.57% and HDIL 3.70%.