Post Session Commentary - Dec 31 2008

The Indian market closed on a negative note on the last trading day of the calendar year 2008 by breaking its past two days wining trend on the back selective profit booking across the sectoral indices. The market opened on a firm note tracking the favoring cues from the global markets. However, the market did not able to sustained at the higher level for so long as the volatility gripped the market. The investors took calculated steps through out the trading s4ession to book their positions. The market is waiting for the second stimulus package by the government to give a boost to the economy along with further rate cuts by the Central bank to take further directions.

Auto stocks gained on reports the government is likely to remove an additional excise duty of Rs 10,000-20,000 on large cars and sports-utility vehicles as part of the package for the auto industry which is facing downturn in sales for want to cheap retail credit. Further, Banking stocks declined on concerns of defaulters due to credit crisis. From the sectoral front, Consumer Durables outperformed the bench mark indices to close with gains of more than 1.5% while most selling pressures was witnessed in the bankex and Oil and Gas space.

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.

ICICI Bank cuts floating rates for home loans by 50 bps to 13.75 per cent along with the deposit rates cut by 50-75 bps. In line with this, the bank has cut PLR by 50 bps to 16.77 per cent w.e.f December 31.

Among the Sensex pack 20 stocks ended in negative territory and 10 ended in red. The market breadth was positive as 1499 stocks closed in green while 935 stocks closed in red and 108 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 68.85 points at 9,647.31 and NSE Nifty ended down by 20.35 points at 2,959.15. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps also ended with gains of 19.05 points and 47.63 points at 3,235.05 and 3,683.11 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,825.90 and intraday low of 9,587.92.

Gainers from Sensex Pack are Satyam Computers closed higher (5.95%) along with Ranbaxy Labs (4.43%), Tata Motors (1.89%), Hindalco (1.87%) and M&M (1.63%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are HDFC closed lower by (2.75%) followed by ICICI Bank (2.12%, HDFC bank (2.02%), Sterlite Inds (1.62%) and Reliance Inds (1.50%).

The Consumer Durables index closed up by (1.56%) or 29.33 points at 1,913.74. Pushed it up are Blue Star closed higher by (4.98%) along with Videocon Inds (3.72%), Titan Inds (0.68%) while Gitanjali GE and Rajesh Exports closed lower by (6.07%) and (2.17%) respectively.

The Auto index closed higher by (0.95%) or 23.07 points at 2,444.71. Major gainers are Bosch (2.73%), Cummins Ind (2.45%), Tata Motors (1.89%), Bharat Forge (1.70%), M&M (1.63%) and Bajaj Auto (1.23%).

The Health Care index gained (0.62%) or 18.42 points at 2,966.19. Scrips that closed in green are Bilcare (4.62%) followed by Ranbaxy Labs (4.43%), Aurobindo Pharma (4.16%), Lupin Ltd. (3.79%), Cadila Healthcare (3.54%), Biocon (1.52%), Cipla (1.47%) and Ipca Lab (1.17%).

The Capital Goods index closed higher by (0.49%) or 33.40 points at 6,911.12. Major gainers are Bharat Electrical (5.28%), AIA Engineering (4.15%), Jyoti Structure (2.95%), Siemens (2.90%), BEML (2.13%), Gammon India (1.88%), Punj Lloyd (1.20%).

The Power index grew by (0.27%) or 4.86 points at 1,829.31. Pushed it up are GVK Power higher by (4.71%) along with Lanco Infra (2.51%), Suzlon Energy (2.47%), Torent Power (1.70%), Power Grid (1.40%), Tata Power (1.20%) and Crompton Greaves (1.54%).

The IT index gained (0.09%) or 1.90 points at 2,227.96. Scrips that closed in green are Satyam Comp (5.95%) followed by Moser Bear (2.69%), Patni Computer (1.42%) and Rolta Ind. (0.22%). However, Financial Technologies (2.52%), Mphasis (1.84%), Oracle Fin (1.72%), TCS (0.87%) and Wipro (0.81%) closed in red.

The BSE Bankex index closed with losses of (1.29%) or 71.12 points at 5,454.54. Major losers are Yes Bank (3.53%) along with Canara bank (2.97%), Federal bank (2.49%), ICICI Bank (2.12%), HDFC Bank (2.02%), Bank Of India (2.01%), Kotak bank (1.26%), Oriental bank (1.16%).

The BSE Oil and Gas index fell (0.98%) or 59.91 points to close at 6,050.04 as BPCL (2.27%), HPCL (2.19%), Essar Oil (1.64%), Reliance Inds (1.50%), RPL (1.13%) closed in red.