Post Session Commentary - Dec 5 2008

The Indian market retreated from Thursday’s strong rally to end the day with losses. The market was downbeat on fears of weakening global economy along with negative European markets and media reports of a shootout at New Delhi''s international airport. Cues from the markets all over the world were weak on expected deterioration in the US job market due to the planned job cuts. Initial claims for the week ended November 29 declined by 21,000 to 509,000.

Domestic markets opened in red tracking negative cues from the US markets. Soon after opening market gained some ground on expectation of stimulus package but was not able to hold the momentum and sentiments again turned weak. Further market continued to trade in red terrain with volatility. Benchmark Indices extended their losses till end on significant selling pressure over the counters. The investors are eyeing at the RBI’s meeting as it is expected that central bank could lower the interest rates and announce a stimulus plan to give a boost to the economy. NSE Nifty managed to close around 2,700 mark and BSE Sensex slipped below 9,000 level. From the sectoral front, Consumer Durables and IT counters witnessed heavy selling pressure and ended with a deep cut of more than 4%. Along with this, profit booking was also visible in Reality, Metal, Oil & Gas, Teck, PSU and Bank stocks. However, Auto index was able to gain favor from the market.

The investors are eyeing at the RBI''s meeting on December 06 (Saturday) as it is expected that central bank could lower the interest rates and announce a stimulus plan to give a boost to the economy. RBI is expected to cut Repo and Reverse Repo rates in an attempt to safeguard the domestic economy against the global economic slowdown. Besides this, the government is likely to announce an export package, a further relaxation in external commercial borrowing norms and a package for infrastructure.

Among the Sensex pack 25 stocks ended in red territory and 5 in green. The market breadth was negative as 1104 stocks closed in green while 985 stocks closed in red and 71 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 264.55 points at 8,965.20 and NSE Nifty ended down by 73.60 points at 2,714.40. The BSE Mid Caps and BSE Small Caps ended with losses of 29.85 and 8.26 points at 2,892.95 and 3,323.54 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,340.69 and intraday low of 8,914.38.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates (6.62%), TCS Ltd (5.10%), Infosys Tech (4.94%), DLF Ltd (4.87%), HDFC (4.84%), Hindalco (4.78%), Sterlite Industries (4.69%), Reliance (3.51%), Satyam Computer (3.50%), ONGC Ltd (2.91%) and Bharti Airtel (2.90%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors (1.46%), Gradim Industries (1.01%), Maruti Suzuki (0.56%), Reliance Communication Ltd (0.15%) and ACC Ltd (0.04%).

The BSE Consumer Durables index lost (4.37%) or 75.76 points to close at 1,658.77. Main losers are Titan Ind (5.34%), Videocon Ind (4.57%), Blue Star L (3.71%) and Gitanjali GE (2.08%).

The BSE IT index dropped by (4.36%) or 107.38 points to close at 2,357.36. Losers are Rolta India (6.02%), TCS Ltd (5.10%), Infosys Tech (4.94%), Aptech Ltd (3.98%), Satyam Computer (3.50%) and Mphasis Ltd (3.31%).

The BSE Reality index ended down by (3.50%) or 61.46 points at 1,692.19. Major losers are Indiabull Real (5.69%), Anant Raj (5.49%), DLF Ltd (4.87%), Housing Dev (4.55%), Akruti City (3.14%) and Sobha Dev (2.55%).

The BSE Metal index ended lower by (3.42%) or 164.18 points at 4,639.73 as Welspan Gujarat SR (6.14%), Steel Authority (6.09%), Jai Corp Ltd (5.57%), Jindal Saw (5.53%), Hindalco (4.78%) and Sterlite Industries (4.69%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE Oil & Gas index lost (3.30%) or 187.35 points to close at 5,495.33. Losers are HPCL (6.51%), BPCL (6.25%), Reliance Natural Resources (4.24%), Cairn Ind (3.94%), IOC (3.63%) and Reliance (3.51%).

The BSE Auto index gained (0.23%) or 5.21 points to close at 2,248.32 as Hero Honda Motors (1.54%), Tata Motors (1.46%), Bajaj Auto (1.30%), Maruti Suzuki (0.56%), Ashok Leyland (0.14%) and Bharat Forge (0.06%) ended in red.