Post Session Commentary - Feb 18 2009

Indian market closed the day on flat note after exhibiting volatility during the trading session. Today investors showed some interest to book further positions after remaining in the sellers front for the past two trading sessions. After an initial fall, the market bounced back on selective buying across the sectoral indices.

The domestic market tumbled in opening bell mirroring fall in markets all over the world led by worsening global economic situation. US stock markets on Tuesday plunged with the S&P 500 index falling below 800 for the first time in nearly three months on the back of renewed financial and economic concerns that prompted an unrelenting selling effort. Further, benchmark indices managed to gain ground on recovery in some Asian stocks along with firm US index futures. Positive opening of European markets also contributed to lift the sentiments. Along with retract from yesterdays fall, volatility was high during the trading session on the back of continuous bouts of buying and selling. BSE Sensex ended below 9,050 mark and NSE Nifty closed below 2,800 level. From the sectoral front, Reality, Oil & Gas, Power, PSU and Auto stocks were able to gain the market favour. However, most of the selling was observed in Bank, Consumer Durables, Pharma and IT stocks. Midcap and Smallcap stocks also witnessed selling pressure during the trading session.

Among the Sensex pack 15 stocks ended in green territory and 15 in red. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained in favour of decliners as 1381 stocks closed in red while 1006 stocks closed in green and 107 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed marginally lower by 19.82 points at 9,015.18 whereas NSE Nifty ended slightly up by 5.65 points at 2,776.15. Broader market indices were in red as BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with losses of 12.82 points and 19.93 points at 2,844.30 and 3,226.06 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,113.92 and intraday low of 8,922.31.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are HDFC (4.76%), M&M Ltd (4.74%), ICICI Bank (4.29%), Reliance Infra (3.41%), SBI (2.69%), Hindalco (1.54%), TCS Ltd (1.10%) and Sun Pharma (0.88%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are DLF Ltd (7.34%), Maruti Suzuki (4.39%), ACC Ltd (3.19%), Reliance (2.14%), NTPC Ltd (1.38%), RBharti Airtel (1.34%), Tata Motors (1.33%) and JP Associates (1.25%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets, which opened before Indian market, ended mixed following a sell-off on Wall Street overnight and fears about the health of the global financial sector. Shanghai Composite, Nikkei 225 and Seoul Composite index ended down by 109.58, 111.07 and 14 points at 2,209.86, 7,534.44 and 1,113.19 respectively. However Hang Seng and Straits Times ended up by 70.6 and 13.14 points at 13,016 and 1,651.06 respectively.

European markets which opened after the Indian market, opened mostly in green are now trading in red. In London FTSE 100 is trading lower by 57.83 points at 3,976.3 and in Frankfurt the DAX index is trading down by 54.68 points at 4,161.92.

The BSE Reality index reversed early losses on hopes that lower interest rates will encourage housing demand mostly driven by finance and ended higher by (3.18%) or 45.99 points to close at 1,491.66. DLF Ltd (7.34%), Unitech Ltd (2.83%), Indiabull Real (2.82%), Housing Dev (2.19%) and Penland Ltd (1.54%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE Oil & Gas index advanced by (1.39%) or 84.72 points to close at 6,162.68. BPCL (5.46%), HPCL (3.92%), IOC Ltd (2.62%) and Reliance (2.14%) ended in positive.

The BSE Power stocks ended up by (0.51%) or 8.91 points at 1,743.09. Main gainers are Power Grid (2.99%), GMR Infra (1.64%), NTPC Ltd (1.38%), BHEL (1.04%) and Tata Power (0.81%).

The BSE Bank index remained subdued on worries about the global banking system and ended down by (2.27%) or 103.88 points at 4,479.49 on weak sentiment for financial sector globally. Main losers are Indian Overseas Bank (4.75%), Oriental Bank (4.32%), ICICI Bank (4.29%), Allahabad Bank (3.12%), SBI (2.69%) and IDBI Bank (1.36%).

The BSE Consumer Durables index closed with decrease of (1.70%) or 27.07 points at 1,563.88 after the interim budget did not announce any sops for the sector. Scrips that lost are Gitanjali GE (4.98%), Titna Ind (3.48%), Rajesh Export (0.41%) and Videocon Ind (0.46%).

The BSE Pharma index also lost ground and ended down by (0.37%) or 9.81 points at 2,625.80. Lossers are Piramal Health (4.06%), Bil Care (3.52%), Divis Lab (2.55%) and Sunpha Adv (1.90%).

Areva T&D ended higher by 2.49%. The company has been chosen as the preferred partner by BGR Energy for 420 KV and 230 KV Gas Insulated Substation package for Mettur Thermal Power Project Stage III of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. The order comprises of Design, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply and other associated activities of 15 bays of 420 KV and 8 bays of 230 KV gas Insulated Substation and 2 km of Gas Insulated Lines. The equipment against this order worth approximately 1010 MINR is to be delivered in Q4 of 2008.

Tata Motors ended up by 1.33% as the company has entered into tie up with Central Bank of India for financing its range of passenger vehicles. This facility will be available at all the 3,500 branches of the bank as well as the 329 touch points of Tata Motors. The Central Bank''s auto loans are for up to 85% of the on road price for 7 years while 10.5% per annum for a period of 36 months and 11.5% for more than 36 months.

KEC International Ltd ended up by 0.58%. The company has bagged new orders in both rural electrification and transmissions Yojana. The company bagged the order from West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd covering electrification in 3340 villages including providing Below Poverty Line service connections and new substations. The projects are scheduled to be completed by July 2010.

M&M Ltd tumbled 4.74%. The company is planning to enter into the leisure boating segment through Mahindra Ocean Blue, which is a joint undertaking with Mumbai-based marina operator Ocean Blue. The Mahindra group will manufacture the power boats, cabin cruisers and catamarans at its existing factories.

Housing Development Finance Corporation slumped 4.76% on fears that a cut in lending rates would impact margins if Reserve Bank of India take more steps to bring down lending rates in the market.

JSW Steel ended down by 2.29%. JSW Steel is geared up to become the country''s largest private sector steel producer with the commissioning of a 3 MTPA extended production line at its Vijaynagar facility. The company is commissioning the three million tonnes per annum additional production line at Vijaynagar plant on February 18, taking its total capacity to 6.8 MTPA. With this expansion, the overall production capacity of the company would reach 7.8 mn tonnes from 4.8 mn tones currently