Post Session Commentary - Jan 19 2009

The Indian market ended just above the dotted line after hovering in narrow range between positive and negative zones for through out of session as investors preferred to wait before Barrack Obama’s swears in as the next US president. The market was volatile as investors were not persuaded about a recovery, along with concerns about slowing earnings growth and rising foreign fund outflows dominating attitude. However, firm global markets supported the domestic bourses at lower level.

The domestic market today opened flat and turned choppy soon after start amid mixed cues from Asian markets. The investors were cautious ahead of Barrack Obama’s swearing in as US president. Obama is set to take office on Tuesday following a US national holiday on Monday. Global market is likely to find a clear way from the inaugural speech by the new president. Further, benchmark indices continued to trade with instability as swung between red and green territory. Finally, market ended slightly above the dotted line on support of some buying interest in index heavyweights. From the sectoral front, Reality, Metal, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and PSU stocks supported the market with buying interest. Midcap and Smallcap stocks also joined the buyers’ radar. However, Bank, IT, Pharma, Auto and FMCG stocks witnessed most of the selling from these baskets.

Among the Sensex pack 17 stocks ended in red territory and 13 in green. The market breadth remained positive as 1353 stocks closed in green while 1024 stocks closed in red and 95 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed slightly up by 5.98 points at 9,329.57 and NSE Nifty ended higher by 17.75 points at 2,846.20. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 16.70 points and 38.69 points at 3,043.53 and 3,451.46 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,409.51 and intraday low of 9,273.41.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates (4.69%), Sterlite Indus (4.02%), ONGC Ltd (3.45%), Bharti Airtel (2.23%), Tata Steel (1.98%), Hindalco (1.50%), L&T Ltd (1.45%), RCom (1.29%) and BHEL (1.07%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are M&M Ltd (4.58%), Grasin Industries (2.71%), ICICI Bank (2.57%), Wipro Ltd (2.44%), Tata Motors (2.12%), MAruti Suzuki (1.78%), SBI (1.55%), Taa Power (1.47%), HDFC (1.21%), Reliance Infra (1.13%) and ITC Ltd (0.99%).

On the global markets front, the Asian Markets ended firm as Hang Seng index closed higher by 84.78 points at 13,339.99. Along with this, Nikkei, Straits Times and Seoul Composite index ended up by 26.69, 16.54 and 15.45 points at 8,256.85, 1,746.99 and 1,150.65 respectively.

The European Markets are trading in positive as United Kingdom government has unveiled second bank bailout plan. The DAX is up by 72.08 points at 4,438.36 and FTSE 100 is higher 85.18 points at 4,232.28. Government proposed to extend drawdown window for new debt and will also extend the maturity date for BoE''s discount window facility. It will establish a new BoE facility for purchasing high quality assets. The government is going to offer capital and asset protection for banks and to clarify the regulatory approach to capital requirements.

The BSE Reality index outperformed the benchmark indices as ended up by (2.17%) or 37.32 points at 1,761.08. Major gainers are Akruti City (12.24%), Housing Development (8.33%), Unitech Ltd (5.98%), Ansal Infra (5.96%), Penland Ltd (5.39%) and Parsvnath (5.10%).

The BSE Metal stocks extended gains on higher metal prices on the London Metal Exchange and ended higher by (1.85%) or 92.61 points at 5,088.04. Main gainers are Steel Authority (4.55%), Sterlite Indus (4.02%), Hindustan Zinc (3.81%), Tata Steel (1.98%), Welspan Gujarat Sr (1.72%) and Hindalco (1.50%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index also supported the buying sentiment and advanced by (1.46%) or 86.71 points at 6,020.40. Gainers are ONGC Ltd (3.45%), Gail India (2.65%), Reliance Pet (2.26%), HPCL (2.12%), Cairn Ind (0.93%) and Reliance (0.92%).

The BSE Bank index tumbled (0.97%) or 48.72 points to close at 4,989.12 as concerns of rising defaults in a weakening economy offset hopes of further relief in interest rates. ICICI Bank (2.57%), Indus Ind Bank (1.71%), SBI (1.55%), Kotak Bank (1.33%) and Indian Overseas Bank (0.45%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE IT index fell as fears a weak global economy would cut the amount firms spent on technology and closed with decrease of (0.75%) or 16.41 points at 2,168.57. Scrips that lost are Moser Bayer (3.56%), Wipro Ltd (2.44%), Oracle Fin (1.90%), HCL Tech (1.57%), Infosys Tech (0.69%) and TCS Ltd (0.45%).

The BSE Pharma index also remained out of favour as dropped by (0.48%) or 13.79 points to close at 2,838.65 as Tanla (8.11%), HCL Tech (7.45%), Tata Communications (6.14%), Reliance Communication Ltd (6.01%), Idea Cell (5.93%), TCS Ltd (5.28%) and NIIT Ltd (5.00%) ended in red.