Post Session Commentary - Jan 1 2009

The Indian market brought cheer on the first day of the new calendar year 2009 by closing with handsome gains. The market rallied during the trading session tracking firm closing of the US markets along with the fall in the weekly inflation figures to 6.38% for the week ended December 20 as against 6.61% reported the previous week. Apart from this, hopes of further rate cut by the Central bank on easing of inflation along with expectation of second stimulus package by the government also added to the positive sentiments. The market kept on trading in the positive territory throughout the trading session.

The domestic market opened on a positive note and kept on trading flat till the mid session but made a sharp turn around to march forward tracking the fall in inflation figure and finally closed the day on an upbeat note. From the sectoral front, all the sectoral indices closed in positive but most buying was witnessed from the Realty and Metal indices that closed with gains of more than 6% each. IT index also followed the trend to close more than 4%. The BSE Sensex close above the 9,900 mark and Nifty above 3,000 mark.

The exports in November 2008 fell 9.9% to $11.5 billion, a second consecutive monthly fall as the global slowdown slashes demand, data released by the government during trading hours today, 1 January 2009, showed. Apart from this, the Centre''''s fiscal deficit till November 2008 has surpassed the budget estimates for the entire 2008-09 by 32% and may deteriorate further with the government increasing public expenditure and reducing taxes to battle slowdown. Fiscal deficit stood at Rs 1,76,510 crore at the end of November 2008, against the Rs 1,33,287 crore target for the current fiscal as revenues dwindled and expenditure, particularly non-plan, soared, the figures released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Wednesday, 31 December 2008 stated.

Among the Sensex pack 28 stocks ended in Positive territory and 2 ended in red. The market breadth was strong as 2,001 stocks closed in green while 493 stocks closed in red and 66 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 256.15 points at 9,903.46 and NSE Nifty closed up by 74.30 points at 3,033.45. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps also ended with gains of 84.05 points and 127.30 points at 3,319.10 and 3,810.41 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,921.70 and intraday low of 9,711.64.

Gainers from Sensex Pack are Reliance Communications closed higher (7.99%) along with Tata Motors (7.48%), Satyam Computers (7.17%), Wipro (6.17%) and L&T (6.11%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Ranbaxy Labs closed lower by (0.97%) followed by ITC (0.03%).

The Realty index closed up by (6.52%) or 148.30 points at 2,422.43. Pushed it up are India Bull Real closed higher by (18.30%) along with Ansal Infra (7.23%), Unitech (9.61%), HDIL (8.20%), Parsavnath (6.67%), Sobha Developers (4.71%) and Penland (4.70%).

The Metal index closed higher by (6.02%) or 314.03 points at 5,528.38. Major gainers are NMDC (16.37%), Sesa Goa (8.11%), SAIL (6.84%), Ispat Industries (5.14%), Sterlite Industries (5.70%) and Tata Steel (5.49%).

The Capital Goods index gained (4.73%) or 327.09 points at 7,238.21. Scrips that closed in green are Alstom Projects (7.08%) followed by L&T (6.11%), Crompton Greaves (6.19%), Havells India (5.88%), Praj Industries (5.86%), SKF (2.93%), AIA Engineering (4.67%) and ABB (4.49%).

The IT index closed up by (3.83%) or 85.23 points at 2,313.19. Major gainers are NIIT Ltd (7.34%), Satyam Comp (7.17%), Mphasis (6.68%), HCL Tech (6.34%), Wipro (6.17%), Tech Mahindra (5.73%), Rolta India (4.31%).

The Auto index grew by (3.12%) or 76.17 points to close at 2,520.88. Pushed it up are Tata Motors higher by (7.48%) along with Maruti Suzuki (5.56%), Escorts (5.38%), Bajaj Auto (4.47%), Exide Industries (3.43%), Bharat Forge (3.22%) and Ashok Leyland (3.20%).

The Power index gained (2.94%) or 53.84 points at 1,883.15. Scrips that closed in green are Suzlon Energy (6.42%) followed by Crompton Greaves (6.19%), GVK Power (6.07%), Reliance Infra (5.66%), Neyvelli Lignite (5.28%), Lanco Infra (4.73%) and ABB (4.49%).

The BSE Bankex index closed with gains of (2.39%) or 130.47 points at 5,585.01. Major gainers are Indusind Bank (3.98%) along with Kotak Bank (3.81%), Yes bank (3.79%), ICICI bank (3.50%), IDBI Bank (2.88%), Axis Bank (2.50%), Bank Of India (2.43%), Oriental bank (2.28%) and SBI (2.14%).