Post Session Commentary - Feb 11 2009

The Indian market snapped its three days gains and ended the day marginally lower after exhibiting weakness with volatility for throughout of trading session. Asian markets also tumbled today following steep drop in Wall Street overnight. US stocks plunged marking the biggest drop since December over disappointment about government''s latest bank bailout plan. The Senate passed its $838bn economic stimulus bill but investor’s sentiments turned pessimistic as the Treasury failed to provide clarity on how it will handle the toxic assets that are driving losses and write-downs on bank balance sheets.

The domestic market today opened on weak note tracking weak cues from global markets. The US stock market on Tuesday plunged on fears that new bank rescue plan announced by the government may not be sufficient to recover the economy from deepening recession. Further benchmark indices continued to trade with negative bias on sustained selling pressure over the ground. Weak European markets also contributed to the southward journey. Finally, market tried to recover during the final trading hours and touch the dotted line on some bouts of buying but still ended slightly lower. BSE Sensex ended around 9,600 mark and NSE Nifty closed below 2,950 level. On the sectoral front, Auto, Consumer Durables, Power FMCG, Teck and Reality stocks remained on limelight as witnessed most of the buying from these baskets. Midcap and Smallcap stocks were also on buyer’s radar. However, most of the selling was seen in Pharma, Metal, Oil & Gas and IT stocks.

Among the Sensex pack 20 stocks ended in red territory and 10 in green. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained strong as 1263 stocks closed in green while 1138 stocks closed in red and 106 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 28.93 points at 9,618.54 and NSE Nifty ended down by 8.8 points at 2,925.7. Broader market indices were in green as BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 10.89 points and 8.45 points at 2,965.14 and 3,350.97 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,648.39 and intraday low of 9,459.59.

Losers from the BSE Sensex are Ranbaxy Lab (5%), Grasim Indus (4.07%), Rel Infra (3.73%), Tata steel (3.38%), Tata Motors (2.09%), Sun Pharma (1.94%), TCS Ltd (1.90%) and Wipro Ltd (1.60%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Maruti Suzuki (4%), ACC Ltd (2.64%), JP Associates (2.47%), Tata Power (1.81%), Bharti Airtel (1.72%) and ICIC Bank (1.71%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets ended mostly lower following US market losses on concerns that the U.S. government''s latest plan to rescue the ailing U.S. banking sector lacked specifics to thaw credit markets and ease the deepening recession. Also, Chinese exports and imports slumped in January 2009 for the third month in a row. Shanghai Composite index, Hang Seng and Seoul Composite index ended down by 4.34, 341.43 and 8.69 points at 2,260.82, 13,539.21 and 1,190.18 respectively. However Straight Times gained 18.68 points at 1,721.97. Japanese markets were closed today for a public holiday.

European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading in red. In London FTSE 100 is trading lower by 16.66 points at 4,196.42 and in Frankfurt the DAX index is trading down by 6.15 points at 4,499.39.

The BSE Pharma index ended down by (1.20%) or 33.16 points to close at 2,723.15 on some profit booking. Ranbaxy Lab (5.00%), Dr Reddy’s Lab (3.75%), Piramal Health (3.66%), Aurobindo Pharma (2.76%), IPCA Lab (2.02%) and Sun Pharma (1.94%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE Metal stocks as ended lower by (1.19%) or 62.75 points at 5,188.71 due to fluctuation in commodity prices at international level. Scrips that lost are Tata Steel (3.38%), Sesa Goa Ltd (2.37%), Jindal Steel (2.19%), JSW Steel (1.83%) and Sterlite Industries (1.46%)

The BSE Oil & Gas index also ended down by (0.82%) or 53.98 points at 6,530.81 as US light crude oil for March delivery fell by $2.01 to settle at $37.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Losers are Cairn Ind (2.88%), ONGC Ltd (1.41%), Reliance (1.25%), Essar Oil Ltd (0.61%) and Aban Offshore (0.57%).

The BSE IT index closed with losses of (0.65%) or 15.53 points at 2,225.73 on weak sentiments. Scrips that lost are Patni Computer (2.72%), HCL Tech (2.16%), TCS Ltd (1.90%), Wipro Ltd (1.60%) and Tech Mahindra (1.27%).

The BSE Auto index advanced by (0.80%) or 20.14 points to close at 2,531.28 as India''s auto exports zoom at 63% in passenger car sales during April to January period of current financial year. Amtek Auto (9.57%), Maruti Suzuki (4%), Hero Honda Motors (1.45%), Exide Indus (1.55%) and Escorts Ltd (1.06%) ended in green.

The BSE Consumer Durable index ended higher by (0.25%) or 4.13 points at 1,679.20. Main gainers are Gitanjali GE (2.27%), Videocon Ind (1.83%) and Blue Star L (1.71%).

Ranbaxy Laboratories fell 5% despite reports that it has bagged its first big drug approval from US Food and Drug Administration for its generic Imitrex.

DLF Ltd plunged 1.08% as it is reportedly expected to secure Rs. 2,000 crore of long term debt in two weeks from public sector banks and other financial institutions. The company has already secured Rs. 1,000 crore of long-term debt over the last few months.

Reliance Power slipped by 0.44% after reports stated that the company may face delays in building its largest coal-fired plants as the credit crunch has seen its loan approvals held up.

Jaiprakash Associates gained 2.47% to Rs. 76.00 on profit booking after the stock rose over 9% in the past three trading sessions.

Bharti Airtel ended up by 1.72%. The company has announced lifetime prepaid recharge option for Rs. 49. Existing Airtel customers can avail themselves of this facility at Rs. 48 only.