Post Session Commentary - Jan 9 2009

The Indian market dipped further on Satyam scam as ended with losses after trading in sluggish manner. Despite easing inflation, volatility ruled the roost on the bourses. Asian stocks were also volatile as moved between positive and negative zone. Along with this, weak European markets added negative sentiments to the market.

The domestic market opened sharply lower on the back of Satyam tragedy. However, the market suddenly gained some momentum as some buying witnessed among the selective scrips. Further, stocks were not able to hold the momentum and slipped sharply to trade lower neglecting the fall in inflation number for the week ended 27th December 2009. During the final trading hours, benchmark indices came out of days'' low but still ended lower. BSE Sensex ended below 9,500 mark and NSE Nifty below 2,900 level. From the sectoral front, Metal stocks took huge beating on the bourses as ended with deep cut of more than 7%. Besides, Reality, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Power and Bank stocks remained out of favor. Midcap and Smallcap stocks also witnessed selling pressure. However, FMCG, Auto and IT stocks were in demand.

Satyam Computer Services chairman and founder B. Ramalinga Raju resigned on Wednesday amid a scandal over inflated profit reporting. In BSE, shares of Satyam Computer Services Ltd today opened at 32 and that remained as highest level. It touched intraday low of 11.50 during the trading session. Finally it closed at 23.85, which was 16.10 points or (40.30%) down as against the previous close of 39.95.

Inflation for the week ended 27th December 2008, declined to ten months low of 5.91%. Inflation rate has been dropped for the ninth consecutive weeks and stood at 6.38% in the previous week and 3.74% in the corresponding week of 2007. The primary articles group in the WPI declined by 50 basis points from the previous week while manufactured products group declined by 30 basis points.

Among the Sensex pack 19 stocks ended in red territory and 11 in green. The market breadth remained extremely weak as 1874 stocks closed in red while 582 stocks closed in green and 62 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 180.41 points at 9,406.47 and NSE Nifty ended down by 47.40 points at 2,873. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with losses of 77.12 points and 106.92 points at 3,120.79 and 3,555.60 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,630.40 and intraday low of 9,250.82.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Satyam Computers (40.30%), Reliance Communication (9.61%), Sterlite Inds (9.55%), Tata Steel (8.20%), Reliance Infra (7.70%), DLF (7.25%), L&T (7.15%), Ranbaxy Labs (7.09%), Tata Power (5.92%) and Tata Motors (5.44%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are TCS (6.34%), HUL (4.79%), NTPC (4.03%), M&M (3.51%) and Maruti Suzuki (3.42%) and Wipro (3.02%).

The BSE Metal index took a huge beating today to close lower by (7.16%) or 401.38 points at 5,203.86. Main losers are Welspun Guj (10.16%), Sterlite Inds (9.55%), SAIL (9.02%), Hind Zinc (8.76%), Tata Steel (8.20%) and NMDC (7.83%).

The BSE Realty index tumbled (5.15%) or 101.11 points to close at 1,864.09 as Ansal Infra (10.34%), Anant Raaj (9.94%), Penland (9.52%), Sobha Dev (8.57%), Orbitco (7.50%), DLF (7.25%) and HDIL (4.90%) closed in red.

The BSE Capital Goods index lost (4.70%) or 329.35 points to close at 6,679.42 as Punj Lloyd (16.64%), Siemens (12.52%), Praj Inds (6.28%), Walchand Inds (6.11%), AIA Engineering (5.05%), Elecon Engineering (4.98%) and Jyoti Structures (4.96%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE Oil and gas index declined (2.81%) or 166.82 points at 5,777.59. Losers are Essar Oil (6.29%), RNRL (4.97%), RPL (4.64%), Aban Offshore (4.01%), Reliance Inds (3.82%) and ONGC (2.85%).

The BSE FMCG index closed with gains of (1.22%) or 24.11 points at 1,993.96. Major gainers are HUL (4.79%), Nestle (3.08%), Dabur India (1.72%), Colgate Palmolive (1.17%) and ITC (0.74%).

The BSE Auto index gained (1.01%) or 25.19 points to close at 2, 523.51. Gainers are Bajaj Auto (4.61%), Hero Honda (3.54%), M&M (3.51%) and Maruti Suzuki (3.42%).

The BSE IT index closed with marginal gains of (0.18%) or 3.83 points at 2,131.99. Scrips that gained are TCS (6.34%), Wipro (3.02%), Oracle Finance (2.16%) and Infosys (0.67%) while the scrips that lost are Satyam Computers (40.30%) along with Moser Baer (7.49%), Rolta India (6.85%), Patni Computers (3.43%) and NIIT (2.85%).