Post Session Commentary - March 24 2009

Markets closed on a lackluster note after showing a strong rally at the initial stage on the back of far end profit booking across the selective indices. BSE Sensex managed to end the day on positive note helped by some buying in key stocks, after touching the red zone during final trading. Market pared most of its gains during last hours on some profit booking led by recent rally in stocks and lower US index futures. However, stocks extended their gains before afternoon trade tracking upbeat sentiment from global markets following the US government''s announcement to ease banks of toxic assets by buying those bad assets.

The market opened today on firm note backed by strong cues from the markets all over the world. The US stock markets on Monday surged after the treasury department announced plan to remove bad assets from banks'' balance sheets. Along with this, a better-than-expected existing home sales report also contributed to the rally. Further, strong buying impetus aided benchmark indices continue to trade on strong note. However, Market was not able to maintain the same tide till end and slipped during final trading. Market pared its initial gains to close below the day''s high. BSE Sensex ended above 9,400 level and NSE Nifty closed below 2,950 level. From the sectoral front, Bank, Reality, Capital Goods and FMCG stocks remained in lime light as witnessed most of the buying from these baskets. However, Metal, Consumer Durables, PSU and Pharma contributed to most the selling pressure. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks also remained out of favor 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 weak as 1395 stocks closed in red while 1134 stocks closed in green and 107 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 47.02 points at 9,471.04 whereas NSE Nifty ended slightly down by 1.20 points at 2,938.70. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 16.36 and 21.47 points at 2,820.08 and 3,155.45 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,699 and intraday low of 9,402.64.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are HDFC Bank (6.31%), ICICI Bank (2.44%), HDFC (2.33%), BHEL (2.25%), Ranbaxy Lab (1.83%), Bharti Airtel (1.69%), Wipro Ltd (1.36%) and M&M Ltd (1.23%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates (6.77%), Hindalco (4.51%), Rel Infra (4.23%), RCom (3.98%), Tata steel (3.63%), Sun Pharma (2.91%) and Tata Motors (2.41%).

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended up tracking Wall Street gains overnight. The U.S. Treasury announced plans to buy $1 trillion of toxic assets in banks. The better-than-expected existing home sales also helped pushed Wall Street up. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Straits Times index and Seoul Composite ended higher by 12.94, 462.92, 272.77, 42.26 and 22.2 points at 2,338.42, 13,910.34, 8,488.30, 1,706.34 and 1,221.7 respectively.

European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading mixed In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading up by 17.21 points at 4,193.58 while in London FTSE 100 is trading lower by 36.73 points at 3,916.08.

The BSE Bank stocks advanced by (2.18%) or 94.13 points to close at 4,419.67 on hopes that lower interest rates may improve lending growth. Major gainers are HDFC Bank (6.31%), Yes Bank (4.97%), Bank of Baroda (2.81%), ICICI Bank (2.44%) and SBI (1.09%).

The BSE Reality ended up by (0.85%) or 13.39 points at 1,591.07. Gainers are Omaxe Ltd (7.21%), Anant Raj (4.41%), Unitech Ltd (3.94%), Parsvnath (2.22%) and Indiabull Real (1.75%).
The BSE Capital Goods index surged (0.78%) or 46.13 points to close at 5,984.39. Main gainers are Kalpat Power T (6.60%), Siemens Ltd (6.23%), Suzlon Energy (5.43%), Usha Martin (5.42%) and Everest Kanto (1.31%).

The BSE FMCG index gained (0.27%) or 5.39 points to close at 1,967.29. Gainers are Dabur India (1.08%), Nestle Ltd (1.08%), United Spr (0.55%), ITC Ltd (0.49%) and HUL (0.21%).

The BSE Metal index closed with decrease of (2.99%) or 167.28 points at 5,425.27 on profit booking. Scrips that lost are NMDC Ltd (5.27%), Steel Authority (5.22%), Hindalco (4.51%), JSW Steel (4.16%) and Welspan Gujarat (4.02%).

The BSE Consumer Durable index ended lower by (1.45%) or 22.67 points to close at 1,537.22. Gitanjali GE (6.64%), Videocon Ind (3.18%), Titan Ind (2.48%) and Rajesh Export (1.83%) ended in negative territory.

Omaxe jumped 7.21% on launching a new project Omaxe Enternity in Vrindavan in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

M&M Ltd gained 1.23%. According to the company’s January 2009 sales figure, recently launched Mahindra XYLO has sold 1,788 numbers in two weeks, while bookings for the vehicle have crossed the 4,000 mark.

Wipro Ltd ended up by 1.36%. The company got Rs 1,282 crore Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)’s contract to convert its paper-based administrative and operational system into a paperless E-governance system.

Reliance Industries gained 0.82% after reports stated that the company has raised the marketing margin it will charge on selling natural gas from eastern offshore KG-D6 fields to US$0.15 per mmbtu from US$0.12 per mmbtu earlier.

Tata Motors lost 2.41%. The company yesterday (Monday) announced the commercial launch of the Tata Nano, keenly awaited across India since it’s unveiling on January 10, 2008. The Tata Nano is BS-III* compliant and comes with an all-new 2-cylinder aluminum MPFI 624 cc petrol engine mated to a four-speed gear box and will be available in three variants.