Post Session Commentary - Dec 30 2008

The Indian market closed on a firm note tracking the positive opening of the Europen markets along with the expectations of another stimulus package by the government and also hopes of further rates cut by the Central bank. This led the rate sensitive stocks to gain momentum during the trading session. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has directed the RBI to soften the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for banks and short-term interest rates. Market is anticipating that, RBI may cut the CRR by 1% that will give banks some room to lend. In addition to this, it may also slash Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate for Banks by 1/2 % point each. Along with this, recent news from Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy head of the Planning commission, of further easing monetary policy due to lower inflation and slowing economic growth have created scope for investors to have faith on market. Also, the higher index futures also added to the sentiments tracking the US Federal Reserve approval of pumping $ 5 billion into General Motors'' (GM) auto and mortgage financing arm GMAC and lending an additional $1 billion to GM to help it buy shares in GMAC, which is considered crucial to GM''s survival.

The domestic market opened on a positive note but soon turned volatile as some of the Asian markets fell into red. From the sectoral front, all the sensitive indices like the Realty and Auto index gained to close with strong gains of more than 3% each. The BSE Sensex closed above the 9,700 mark and NSE Nifty closed above 2,950 mark.

Among the Sensex pack 28 stocks ended in positive territory and 1 ended in red. The market breadth was positive as 1644 stocks closed in green while 810 stocks closed in red and 85 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 182.64 points at 9,716.16 and NSE Nifty ended up by 57.30 points at 2,979.50. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps also ended with gains of 68.46 points and 63.97 points at 3,216 and 3,635.48 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,785.04 and intraday low of 9,494.70.

Gainers from Sensex are Satyam Computers closed higher (8.33%) along with Reliance Comm (7.16%), JP Associates (6.01%), M&M (5.75%) and Tata Motors (4.91%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack is Grasim Industries closed lower by (1.16%).

The Power index grew by (2.38%) or 42.39 points at 1,824.45. Pushed it up are Lanco Infra higher by (8.09%) along with GMR Infra (4.16%), Reliance Power (3.88%), NTPC (2.48%), Neyvelli Lignite (2.62%), Tata Power (1.82%) and Crompton Greaves (2.19%).

The Capital Goods index closed higher by (2.92%) or 195.29 points at 6,877.72. Major gainers are Bharat Electrical (5.49%), Jyoti Structure (4.97%), Praj Industries (4.28%), ABB (3.32%), BEML (3.08%), L&T (3.90%).

The IT index gained (2.40%) or 52.11 points at 2,226.06. Scrips that closed in green are Satyam Comp (8.33%) followed by Mphasis (7.30%), Rolta Ind. (4.28%), Wipro (3.63%), HCL Technologies (3.11%) and Oracle Fin (3.68%).

The BSE Realty index closed with handsome gains of (3.48%) or 76.79 points at 2,283.52. Major gainers are Akruti City (6.53%) along with HDIL (4.86%), Omaxe (4.60%), Indiabull Real (4.57%), Unitech (4.35%), Anasl Infra (4.09%) and Parsvnath (3.99%).

The BSE Auto index surged (3.09%) or 72.50 points to close at 2,421.64 as MRF (7.05%), Apollo Tyres (6.67%), Ashok Leyland (6.38%), M&M (5.75%), Tata Motors (4.91%), Bajaj Auto (4.64%) and Maruti Suzuki (3.75%) closed in positive territory.

The BSE Bankex index closed higher by (2.24%) or 121.05 points at 5,525.66. Scrips that gained are PNB (3.71%), Axis bank (3.15%), BOB (3.11%), ICICI Bank (3.05%), IDBI Bank (3.04%), Kotak bank (2.78%), Yes bank (2.70%) and BOI (1.91%).

The BSE Metal index grew by (1.86%) or 95.12 points at 5,205.04. Pushed it up are Sterlite Inds closed higher by (4.82%) along with Gujarat NRE Coke (4.17%), Sesa Goa (3.18%), Welspun Guj SR (2.90%), Hindalco Inds (2.53%) and Ispat Inds (2.53%).