Post Session Commentary - Jan 28 2009

The Indian market ended higher ahead of the expiry of monthly derivatives contracts on Thursday, 29th Jan 2009. Firm Asian markets along with U.S. stock futures that rose on news that a key U.S. Senate panel expanded an economic stimulus package also strengthened the market.

The domestic market today extended its yesterday’s gains and opened on positive note on positive global markets along with short covering ahead of F&O contracts expiry on 29th Jan 2009. But suddenly the markets turned choppy. Further market remained range bound till mid session but continued to trade positive on the back of strong support from its global counterparts. Firm European markets led by banks and energy stocks also added to the sentiments. Stocks touched to the day''s high during last trading hours as huge buying emerged across the board. BSE Sensex ended above 9,250 level along with NSE Nifty ended around 2,850 mark. From the sectoral front, all indices ended in green and among those Reality stocks outperformed the benchmark indices as ended with positive gap of more than 6%. Besides, Metal, Bank, Oil & Gas, Bank, PSU, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and FMCG stocks observed most of the buying from these baskets. Midcap and Smallcap stocks also followed the same trend.

Among the Sensex pack 27 stocks ended in green territory and 3 in red. The market breadth remained positive as 1403 stocks closed in green while 1025 stocks closed in red and 102 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 253.39 points at 9,257.47 and NSE Nifty ended up by 78.15 points at 2,849.50. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 46.93 points and 38.44 points at 2,914.80 and 3,304.98 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,270.75 and intraday low of 9,053.80.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Ranbaxy Lab (7.56%), ICICI Bank (7.08%), DLF Ltd (6.63%), L&T Ltd (5.20%), Tata Motors (4.60%), M&M Ltd (4.28%), HDFC (4.02%), Reliance (3.76%), Wipro (3.63%), ONGC LTD (3.42%) and Reliance Infra (3.14%).

Only three losers from the BSE Sensex pack Maruti Suzuki (3.15%), RCom (3.03%) and Sterlite Industries (0.41%).

The Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi informed today, 28 January 2009, that the Lok Sabha elections will be held between 8 April and 15 May 2009.

On the global markets front, the Asian Markets ended higher following overnight gains in Wall Street as Nikkei 225, Straits Times and Seoul Composite index ended up by 45.22, 80.85 and 64.58 points at 8,106.29, 1,766.08 and 1,157.98 respectively. However the Shanghai, Hang Seng and Taiwan markets are shut today for the Lunar New Year holidays. Investors await the outcome of the two-day Federal Reserve meeting, which concludes later today. The US central bank has previously cut interest rates to nearly zero and is now looking for new means to pull the world''s largest economy out of a deepening recession.

The European Markets are trading firm as the DAX is up by 110.50 points at 4,433.92 and FTSE 100 is higher 66.91 points at 4,261.32. The European markets opened with strong gains ahead of US FOMC meet. The UK government had earlier announced an aid package for the struggling UK auto industry. As per a UK government release, the U.K. government said it would offer carmakers 2.3bn pounds of loan guarantees to help them cope with the recession.

The BSE Reality index rose on hopes lower rates will spur housing demand as ended up by (6.32%) or 97.77 points at 1,644.48. Major gainers are Unitech Ltd (13.21%), Indiabull Real (9.39%), DLF Ltd (6.63%), Housing Development (6.06%), Orbit Co (5.26%) and Parsnath (4.95%).

The BSE Metal index supported the buying sentiment and ended higher by (4.44%) or 207.33 points at 4,879.97. Main gainers are NMDC Ltd (16.21%), Welspan Gujarat SR (10.88%), Sesa Goa Ltd (10.80%), Steel Authority (9.69%), Jindal Steel (5.64%) and JSW Steel (5.44%).

The BSE Bank index ended higher by (3.79%) or 174.71 points to close at 4,789.93 after the Reserve Bank of India kept its key rates unchanged in its credit policy on Tuesday, 27 January 2009. Axis Bank (7.25%), ICICI Bank (7.08%), Kotak Bank (5.90%), Bank of India (3.27%) and Karnataka Bank (3.19%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE Oil & Gas index ended with handsome gains as advanced by (3.76%) or 220.56 points at 6,289.46. Gainers are Reliance Pet (7.94%), Cairn Ind (7.02%), Gail India (6.63%), Essar Oil Ltd (5.65%), Reliance (3.76%) and Reliance Natural Resources (3.50%).

The BSE PSU index was able to gain market favor and gained (3.12%) or 154.20 points to close at 5,096.29 as NMDC Ltd (16.21%), Steel Authority (9.69%), Gail India (6.63%), MMTC Ltd (5.00%), State Trad Corp (4.14%) and Contain Corp (4.03%) ended in green.

The BSE Capital Goods index also remained in limelight and closed with increase of (3.04%) or 184.94 points at 6,274.01. Scrips that gained are Bharat Bijli (6.66%), L&T Ltd (5.20%), Havells India (4.56%), Areva (3.83%), Everest Kanto (3.80%) and Bharat Elect (3.63%).

NMDC Ltd ended up by 16.21%. The company posted a net profit of Rs 14249.50 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 as compared to Rs 9682.20 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2007. Total Income has increased from Rs 17981.20 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 to Rs 25666.80 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

ICICI Bank ended higher by 7.08% as its ADR rose 3.62% overnight. Net profit of ICICI Bank rose 3.41% to Rs 1272.15 crore on 0.1% rise in total operating income to Rs 10,350.62 crore in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007.

Tata Motors gained 4.60% after the U.K. government offered carmakers loan guarantees to help them cope with the recession. The U.K. government will offer carmakers 2.3 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) of loan guarantees to help the ailing auto firms in the UK, which includes Jaguar Land Rover. The manufacturers will be allowed to tap 1.3 billion pounds of financing the European Investment Bank made available to U.K. companies last year and another 1 billion pounds of backing from the Treasury.