Post Session Commentary - Dec 12 2008

The domestic market ended the day with marginal gains after recovering from initial losses on upturn in US index futures from early fall. Resumption of buying by foreign funds also aided recovery on the domestic bourses. Benchmark indices reported a smart bounce back from earlier fall which was by the failure of the proposal to bail out the US auto industry in a procedural vote in the Senate late, 11 December 2008. During the final trading market ignored weak opening of European markets and the grim IIP data as expecting more rate cuts to aid the economic slowdown.

The Indian market opened with a negative gap tracking weak cues from Asian markets after collapse of the US auto bailout. Further, market continued to trade in red on huge sell off ahead of October IIP number. The market was not showing any sign of recovery as much eyed IIP number for the month of October fell for the first time in many years by 0.4% in October, softened by manufacturing sector. However, during final trading, benchmark indices took a sharp rebound from its losses to move into the positive zone on recovery in US index futures. Expectation of another cut in rates by RBI also lifted sentiments. From the sectoral front Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, Reality, Capital Goods, Metal and Bank stocks were in limelight as witnessed most of the buying from these baskets. Midcap and Smallcap stocks also supported the market. However IT, Teck, FMCG, Pharma and PSU stocks remained out of favor.

Among the Sensex pack 17 stocks ended in green territory and 13 in red. The market breadth was positive as 1547 stocks closed in green while 851 stocks closed in red and 81 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 44.61 points at 9,690.07 and NSE Nifty ended slightly up by 1.20 points at 2,921.35. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 47.40 points and 87.37 points at 3,050.48 and 3,530.96 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,745.41 and intraday low of 9,281.89.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are DLF Ltd (7.73%), Reliance Infra (7.25%), Reliance Communication Ltd (4.18%), Reliance (3.76%), Hindalco (3.12%), Tata Power (2.71%), M&M Ltd (2.32%), JP Associates (1.71%), HDFC (1.79%), SBI (1.38%), ICICI Bank (1.28%) and ITC Ltd (0.91%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are TCS Ltd (5.00%), Wipro Ltd (4.52%), Tata Motors (4.02%), ONGC Ltd (2.78%), Bharti Airtel (2.69%), Infosys Tech (2.52%), Satyam computer (1.60%), NTPC Ltd (1.23%), BHEL (1.06%) and Grasim Industries (0.86%).

The Index of Industrial Production number for October stands at a negative 0.4% as compared to 4.8% of earlier month. It was 12.22% during the corresponding period of previous year. A negative IIP number has happened for the second time in India''s history and was last seen 10 years back. Manufacturing production, which accounts for 80% of the index fell 1.2% in October 2008 from 13.8% a year earlier.

The BSE Reality index ended up by (3.94%) or 80.60 points at 2,128.18. Major gainers are Anant Raj (9.94%), DLF Ltd (7.73%), Ansal Infra (4.12%), Penland Ltd (2.80%), Mahindra Life (2.49%) and Housing Dev (2.11%).

The BSE Consumer Durables index advanced by (2.93%) or 49.60 points to close at 1,743.05. Main gainers are Titan Ind (4.87%), Gitanjali GE (4.12%), Rajesh Export (2.95%), Blue Star L (0.53%) and Videocon Ind (0.30%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index surged (2.34%) or 140.36 points to close at 6,145.35 as BPCL (5.72%), HPCL (5.51%), Essar Oil Ltd (4.69%), Reliance (3.76%), Cairn India (2.95%) and IOC (2.61%) ended in green.

The BSE Bank index ended higher by (1.20%) or 59.95 points at 5,063.25 as IDBI Bank (4.27%), Indian Overseas Bank (3.70%), Indus Ind Bank (3.20%), Punjab National Bank (2.69%), Bank oIndia (2.67%) and Axis Bank (2.49%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE IT index ended down (2.88%) or 67.87 points at 2,291.33. Losers are HCL Tech (7.27%), TCS Ltd (5.00%), Wipro Ltd (4.52%), Financ Tech (3.51%), NIIT Ltd (3.12%) and Infosys Tech (2.52%).

The BSE Teck index ended lower by (1.70%) or 34.48 points at 1,990.45 as TCS Ltd (5.00%), Wipro Ltd (4.52%), Financ Tech (3.51%), DTL Ltd (3.47%), NIIT Ltd (3.12%) and Bharti Airtel (2.69%) ended in red.