Post Session Commentary - March 17 2009

Intense selling pressure during final trading hours forced domestic market to close in red terrain. Key benchmark indices slipped on account of profit booking by investors from last session’s gains. Along with this, negative European markets and also fueled the unhelpful attitude. Further, sentiments were also weighed down by lower US index futures.

The Indian market opened flat after successive three days of gain, mirroring mixed cues from the global markets. Monday, the US stock markets ended its four sessions winning steak to close in negative due to weakness among the technology space and rising concern over credit card defaults. Benchmark indices turned volatile and continued to witness instability due to short of any specific news. Further, market slipped into red to touch days low in afternoon trade on strong selling witnessed over key stocks. At the end, market concluded its journey with losses on immense sell off. BSE Sensex ended below 8,900 mark after breaching the 9,000 and NSE Nifty below 2,800 level after touching 2,800 during the trading. From the sectoral front, most of the selling was seen in Bank, IT, Oil & Gas, Teck, Consumer Durable and Reality stocks. However, BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks remained flat. Further, there was some support from Auto, Power, FMCG and Metal 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 was strong as 1330 stocks closed in green while 1137 stocks closed in red and 107 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 79.72 points at 8,863.62 and NSE Nifty ended down by 19.8 points at 2,757.45. BSE Mid Caps ended with loss of 4.21 points at 2,696.35 and BSE Small Caps ended with gain of 11.82 points 3,010.31. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,024.12 and intraday low of 8,801.79.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are TCS Ltd (4.31%), SBI (3.87%), JP Associates (3.75%), HDFC Bank (2.27%), Ranbaxy Lab (2.03%), Reliance (1.98%), HDFC (1.77%), DLF Ltd (1.76%) and Infosys Tech (1.76%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors (3.40%), Hindalco (2.34%), ITC Ltd (1.64%), Maruti Suzuki (1.55%), NTPC Ltd (1.40%) and M&M Ltd (0.91%).

Meanwhile, the corporate advance tax payment for the forth installment of fiscal year 2009 observed a mixed trend. On one hand, RIL and TATA Steel have paid lower tax for the said duration and on the other State Bank of India and Bank of India have paid higher advance tax. However, Indian Oil Corporation has made a sharply lower advance tax payment. The advance tax payment of RIL fell 16.47% to Rs 370 crore in Q4 March 2009 over Q4 March 2008 along with Tata Steel fell 23.33% to Rs 230 crore while SBI''s tax payment has surged 57.66% to Rs 1,810.crore.

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended mixed. Most of the Asian stocks extended gains as investors dispensed into banking shares due to relief in worries about the global financial turmoil. Shanghai Composite, Nikkei 225, and Seoul Composite ended higher by 65.04, 244.98 and 38.42 points at 2,218.43, 7,949.13 and 1,163.88 respectively. However, Hang Seng and Straits Times index lost 98.62 and 27.29 points at 12,878.09 and 1,559.03 respectively.

European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading lower. In London FTSE 100 is trading down by 25.58 points at 3,838.41 and in Frankfurt the DAX index is trading lower by 21.40 points at 4,023.14.

The BSE Bank index closed with decrease of (2%) or 81.63 points at 4,005.73 on worries for rising defaults in economic downturn. Scrips that lost are Axis Bank (4.93%), Punjab National Bank (4.13%), Bank of Baroda (3.97%), SBI (3.87%) and Karnataka Bank (3.56%).

The BSE IT index ended down by (1.72%) or 37.87 points at 2,161.30 on fears a weak global economy would cut the amount firms spent on technology. Losers are TCS Ltd (4.31%), Oracle Fin (3.44%), Aptech Ltd (2.25%), Infosys Tech (1.76%) and Wipro Ltd (0.42%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index ended lower by (1.46%) or 91.65 points to close at 6,206.61. Essar Oil Ltd (3.50%), Reliance Natural Resources (3.28%), IOC Ltd (2.10%), Gail India (2.09%) and Reliance (1.98%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE Teck index lost by (1.05%) or 18.30 points to close at 1,718.52. Losers are Tata Teleser (9.61%), Balaji Tele (5.98%), IBN18 (4.55%), Sun TV (3.54%) and Oracle Fin (3.44%).

The BSE Auto stocks witnessed rally as advanced by (1.06%) or 30.05 points to close at 2,854.77. Main gainers are Tata Motors (3.40%), MRF Ltd (3.08%), Apollo Tyre (2.55%), Cummins Ind (2.14%) and Maruti Suzuki (1.55%).

The BSE Power index gained (0.73%) or 12.41 points to close at 1,710.67. Main gainers are GMR Infra (5.90%), Crompton Greaves (5.01%), Neyveli LIG (3.14%), Suzlon Energy (2.84%) and NTPC Ltd (1.40%).

Bharti Airtel fell by 0.15% despite reports that the company will restructure its businesses into nine verticals under different chief executives, as it looks to expand into areas beyond its mainstay, voice telephony.

Praj Industries Ltd ended lower by 1.43%. The company has received an order for downstream processing equipment from Range Fuels, USA, of approx. Rs 20 crores.

LIC Housing Finance Ltd (LICHFL) ended down by 2.66%. The company cut its home loan rates by 0.75 per cent for the existing customers with effect from from April 1. The borrowers can now avail loans for a rate of 10- 10.5 per cent as against 10.75-11.25 per cent earlier.

Tata Consultancy Services slipped 4.31% on lower advance tax payment in the fourth installment.

Bank of India lost 3.28% despite reports it had paid advance tax of Rs. 590 crore for 4QFY09 sharply higher than 4QFY08.

MTNL surged 3.34% on reports of the company’s restructuring plans. The company is planning to spin off its real estate and mobile towers into a separate arm.