Post Market Watch - Nov 26 2008

Equities gained momentum at the fag end of the trading hour led by banking, oil & gas and metal stocks. Frontliners-RIL, Sterlite Industries and ICICI Bank also supported the market sentiment.

BSE Midcap rose 0.17%, while Smallcap index declined 0.56%.

Subsequent to oil ministry`s decision on rate cuts in oil prices as of now, shares of oil & gas companies surged. BSE Oil & Gas Index was up over 4%.

Besides, news about China cutting CRR by 108 basis points and interest rate to 5.58% from 6.66%, fuelled the market sentiments.

All sectors traded in positive. BSE Bankex gained the most. The counter surged over 5%, followed by Oil & gas which rose 4.41% and Metal moved up 3.66%.

Indian stock market started the day on a positive zone after a fall of 2.33% on the previous working day. The 30-share index, BSE Sensex opened with a gain of 72.67 points, at 8,768.20 on Wednesday.

The Sensex ended the day with a gain of 331.19 points, or 3.81% at 9,026.72 after touching a high of 9,061.72 and a low of 8,658.53. The broad-based NSE Nifty gained 98.25 points, or 3.70% at 2,752.25 after hitting a high of 2,762.60 and a low of 2,643.35.

Biggest gainers in the 30-share index were Sterlite Industries (India) (12.88%), ICICI Bank (9.55%), HDFC Bank (8.63%), NTPC (6.93%), Reliance Industries (6.11%), and DLF (5.53%).

On the other hand, Mahindra & Mahindra (2.55%), and Maruti Suzuki India (0.50%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Overall market breadth was negative. Out of the total 2,228 stocks traded at BSE, 938 advanced, 1,222 declined while 68 remained unchanged.