Post Session Commentary - Dec 29 2008

The Indian market closed on a handsome note tracking the strong opening of the European markets and expectations of second stimulus package by the government to give a boost to the economy and hope of further rate cut by the Central bank due to coming down of inflation figures. Also, the positive US index futures also added to the sentiments. The market also got a support from the index heavy weights like Staym Computers that gained more than 15% to touch an intraday high of Rs 159.60 to finally close at Rs148.25 as the company would consider measures to strengthen the firm''''s governance structure including increasing the size and altering the composition of the board. However, the scrips pared some of its gains on news that two independenet directors of the company have resigned.

The domestic market opened on a weak note tracking the violence in the Middle east along with concerns of corporate earnings. However, market later changed its gears to make a smart bounce back from the initial fall on sustained buying across the counters. The advance tax payments by the Indian corporates fell by 22% to about Rs42, 600 crore during the December quarter over the same period last year. Israeli warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a third consecutive day and prepared for a possible invasion. The BSE Sensex closed above the 9,500 mark and NSE Nifty closed below 2,900 mark. From the sectoral front, the Bankex, Metal, Oil an d gas and Power indices remained in the lime light as most buying was witnessed from this basket.

Among the Sensex pack 23 stocks ended in red territory and 7 in green. The market breadth was positive as 1289 stocks closed in green while 1095 stocks closed in red and 83 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 204.60 points at 9,533.52 and NSE Nifty ended up by 64.95 points at 2,922.20. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 40.86 points and 22.97 points at 3,147.54 and 3,571.51 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,550.40 and intraday low of 9,162.66.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors down (4.37%) followed by M&M (3.67%), Maruti Suzuki (2.32%), L&T (0.44%) and Tata Power (0.39%).

Gainers from Sensex are Satyam Computers closed up (9.41%) along with JP Associates (7.26%), Ranbaxy Labs (7.03%) and ICICI Bank (6.35%).

The BSE Bankex index closed with gains of (3.71%) or 193.16 points at 5,404.61. Main gainers are Yes bank (6.85%), ICICI bank (6.35%), IDBI bank (5.73%), Oriental bank (3.91%), Kotak Bank (3.68%) and BOI (3.24%).

The BSE Metal index surged (3.23%) or 159.70 points to close at 5,109.92 as SAIL (10.36%), NMDC (6.14%), Jindal Steel (5.23%), Hind Zinc (4.23%), Welspun Guj SR (3.70%) and Sesa Goa (3.22%) closed in positiveterritory.

The BSE Oil and Gas index ended up by (2.87%) or 169.32 points at 6,078.94. Scrips that gained are Cairn India (7.89%), Essar Oil (4.83%), RPL (4.37%), RNRL (3.29%), HPCL (2.93%) and Reliance Inds (2.91%).

The Power index grew by (2.01%) or 35.07 points at 1,782.06. Pushed it up are GVK Power Inf higher by (7.30%) along with GMR Infra (6.49%), Suzlon Energy (6.34%), Torrent Power (4.33%), Neyvelli Lignite (4.25%), Reliance Infra (3.71%) and Bhel (3.60%).

The Capital Goods index closed higher by (1.24%) or 82.16 points at 6,682.43. Major gainers are Usha Martin (7.34%), Areva (6.64%), Suzlon Energy (6.34%), Walchand Inds (5.64%), Jyoti Structures (4.99%).

The IT index gained (1.14%) or 24.51 points at 2,173.95. Scrips that closed in green are Satyam Comp (9.41%) followed by Aptech (7.08%), NIIT (4.73%), Tech Mahindra (3.08%), Rolta India (1.42%) and Finance Tech (1.14%).