Post Session Commentary - Feb 6 2009

The Indian market closed with decent gains in line with other Asian markets which were higher on hopes of US stimulus to revive the world’s largest economy. Positive opening of European markets also contributed to the northward journey of the domestic market. Besides the firm global cues, the forthcoming interim budget which is on the mid of this month, which may offer tax sops and sector-specific stimulus package also contributed the sentiments of the investors. The Indian government is going to announce the interim budget in February 16, 2009 to give a boost to the economy.

The domestic market opened on pleasant note on the back of firm cues from the US markets and positive Asian markets. The US stock market on Thursday rallied with the financial stocks surged on cheerfulness over the government''s forthcoming bank bailout plan and better-than-expected monthly sales from Wal-Mart Stores. Drop in inflation number for the week ended 24th Jan 2009 to 5.07% from 5.64% of the previous week also added to the sentiments. Further markets extended its gains on strong buying across the board. During final trading hours benchmark indices rallied sharply to close with handsome gains. BSE Sensex ended around 9,300 mark and NSE Nifty closed above 2,800 level. From the sectoral front, investors on-loaded their positions across the sectors. The majority of buying was witnessed among Oil & Gas, Metal, Consumer Durable, Bank, Teck, IT, Power and Reality stocks. Midcap and Smallcap stocks also followed the same trendets.

Among the Sensex pack 28 stocks ended in green territory and 2 in red. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1459 stocks closed in green while 1002 stocks closed in red and 104 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 209.98 points at 9,300.86 and NSE Nifty ended up by 63.05 points at 2,843.10. Broader market indices were in green as BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 40.70 points and 33.94 points at 2,882.90 and 3,279.24 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,321.38 and intraday low of 9,158.59.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Ranbaxy Lab (7.08%), Grasim Indus (6.57%), Tata Motors (4.64%), Reliance (4.41%), ICICI Bank (4.09%), TCS Ltd (4.04%), Reliance Infra (4.02%), Bharti Airtel (3.00%) and M&M Ltd (2.77%).

Only two losers from the BSE Sensex pack HUL (1.02%) and DLF Ltd (0.86%).

On the global markets front, The Asian markets ended higher led by gains in the IT and the banking stocks. Further the weaker yen lifted earnings prospects for Japanese electronics companies. Hopes of $920 stimulus package in the US also boosted sentiments. The Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Straits Times and Seoul Composite index ended up by 83.22, 476.14, 126.97, 10.75 and 32.38 points at 2,181.24, 13,655.04, 8,074.62, 1,715.35 and 1,210.26.

European markets are trading in green tracking Wall Street gains overnight. FTSE 100 is trading higher by 27.40 points at 4,256.33 and the DAX index is trading up by 32.83 points at 4,543.32.

The BSE Oil & Gas index ended higher by (3.27%) or 200.3 points at 6,333.86. Gainers are Reliance (4.41%), Cairn Ind (2.70%), ONGC (2.40%), Reliance Natural Resources (1.87%) and Essar Oil (1.69%).


The BSE Metal index closed with increase of (3.04%) or 150.74 points at 5,102.64 as improved manufacturing data in China on 4 February 2009 indicated its downturn may be bottoming out. Scrips that gained are Sesa Goa Ltd (8.69%), JSW Steel (7.29%), Steel Authority (6.82%), Jindal Steel (5.53%), Jai Corp Ltd (4.99%) and Tata Steel (2.28%).

The BSE Consumer Durables index ended higher by (2.52%) or 35.79 points to close at 1,619.79. Titan Ind (3.83%), Videocon Ind (3.57%), Gitanjali GE (0.88%) and Rajesh Export (0.21%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE Bank index ended up by (2.49%) or 115.57 points at 4,763.70 after RBI on 5th February 2009 extended forex swap facility for banks until the end of 2009-10 and raised interest rate ceiling on foreign currency export creditsac. Major gainers are ICICI Bank (4.09%), ICICI Bank (4.09%), Indus Ind Bank (3.59%), Cananra Bank (2.72%), Axis Bank (2.70%) and SBI (2.24%).

The BSE Teck index rose on defensive buying and ended higher by (2.35%) or 41.34 points at 1,802.24. Main gainers are Tel Eighteen (7.80%), IBN18 (4.98%), Zee Ent (4.76%), TCS Ltd (4.04%) and Tech Mah (3.02%).

The BSE IT index gained (2.28%) or 49.11 points to close at 2,204.16 on hopes for US stimulus measures as Rajesh Export (0.21%), HCL Tech (3.37%), Tech Mah (3.02%), Infosys Tech (2.16%) and Wipro Ltd (1.93%) ended in green.

Tata Motors ended higher by 4.64%. India’s largest automobile company said that three-quarters of its purchases from vendors have been paid immediately through an arrangement with banks. The company earlier owes an amount overdue of more than Rs. 1200 crore in-unpaid dues to its suppliers over the past few months.

Satyam Computer surged 2.49% after the board of directors of the company appointed A S Murty as Chief Executive Officer, of the company. The Board has also appointed Homi Khusrokhan and Partho Datta as Special Advisors, to assist in Management and Finance areas, respectively.

Dr Reddy''s Laboratories rose 2.48% after the company said it launched five generic drugs in the US market in January 2009.