Post Session Commentary - March 31 2009

Domestic market closed on positive note following firm cues from the Asian markets along with positive European markets. Favorable US index futures also added to the sentiments. The market continued it’s up move during the trading session on buying interest across the counters though; it had trimmed its gains amid volatility during early trading.

The Indian market belled the day on pleasant note after recovering smartly from last session’s losses tracking gains in Asian stocks. However the US stock markets plunged due to concerns about the possible bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler after the White House rejected their turnaround plans. However, key stocks turned irregular, as investors were a little cautious on negative sentiments across US market. Further, benchmark indices managed to gain momentum and bounced back from day’s low as buying emerged over the ground. Market continued to gain ground to end the day on positive note led by firm sentiments. From the sectoral front, all indices ended in green. Besides, Capital Goods, Pharma, Reality, Auto, Metal, Teck, IT, FMCG and Bank stocks witnessed most of the buying. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks also followed the same trend.

Among the Sensex pack 25 stocks ended in green territory and 5 in red. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained strong as 1551 stocks closed in green while 903 stocks closed in red and 88 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 140.36 points at 9,708.50 and NSE Nifty ended up by 42.80 points at 3,020.95. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 65.64 and 46.58 points at 2,956.23 and 3,246.63 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,826.22 and intraday low of 9,547.21.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates (7.26%), Tata Steel (5.02%), Tata Motors (4.64%), Ranbaxy Lab (4.58%), SBI (4.36%), RCom (4.02%), M&M Ltd (3.51%), Hindalco (3.39%), L&T Ltd (3.33%) and ITC Ltd (3.30%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are HDFC (2.71%), NTPC Ltd (1.80%), ICICI Bank (1.58%), HUL (0.50%) and ONGC Ltd (0.41%).

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended mostly in green. However, Japan’s Nikkei tumbled as investors preferred to offload shares on the last trading day of the fiscal year ahead of the Tankan Survey slated to be released tomorrow. Besides, South Korean data boosts economic recovery hope as industrial output rose 6.8% in February from January and consumer goods sales by 5.0%, each marking the biggest rise in more than a decade. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Straits Times index and Seoul Composite ended higher by 15.17, 119.69, 26.85 and 8.8 points at 2,373.21, 13,576.02, 1,699.99 and 1,206.26 respectively. However, Nikkei 225, lost 126.55 point at 8,109.53.

European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading higher. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading up by 38.09 points at 4,027.32 and in London FTSE 100 is trading higher by 85.07 points at 3,847.98.

The BSE Capital Goods stocks advanced by (3.29%) or 205.73 points to close at 6,466.03. Major gainers are Siemens Ltd (10.04%), Punj Lloyd (6.80%), Areva (6.14%), ABB Ltd (4.84%) and Crompton Geaves (4.50%).

The BSE Pharma ended up by (2.97%) or 81.56 points at 2,830.11. Gainers are Sunpha Adv (17.04%), Aurobindo Pharma (9.04%), Biocon Ltd (7.96%), Wockhardt Ltd (7.14%) and Piramal Health (7.05%).

The BSE Realty index gained (2.93%) or 44.41 points to close at 1,560.83 on hopes that lower rates will spur housing demand. Gainers are Indiabull real (8.07%), Pheonix Mill (5.62%), Penland Ltd (4.57%), Housing Dev (4.46%) and Mahindra Life (4.26%).

The BSE Auto index also ended higher by (2.44%) or 73.02 points at 3,061.67 on reports the government plans to extend higher depreciation benefit of 50% on commercial vehicles by three months till June 2009. MFR Ltd (6.87%), Apollo Tyre (6.44%), Tata Motors (4.64%), M&M Ltd (3.51%) and Cummins Ind (2.80%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE Metal index closed with increase of (2.43%) or 137.39 points at 5,795.07 after industrial copper increased on the London Metal Exchange. Scrips that gained are JSW Steel (8.54%), Jindal Saw (5.86%), Tata Steel (5.02%), Hindustan Zinc (4.74%) and Hindalco (3.39%).

The BSE Teck index surged (2.32%) or 41.96 points to close at 1,846.83. Main gainers are Financ Tech (6.09%), Aptech Ltd (5.71%), Rolta India (5.40%), Patni Computer (4.42%) and Mphasis Ltd (4.24%).

Ranbaxy Labs closed up by 4.58%. Ranbaxy Laboratories (Ranbaxy) and Daiichi Sankyo Company (Daiichi Sankyo) announced that Ranbaxy will launch Olvance (Olmesartan Medoxomil, antihypertensive), which was originally discovered by Daiichi Sankyo. This follows a licensing agreement between the two companies authorizing Ranbaxy to promote and market the drug in India.

L&T ended higher by 3.33%. The company has received an order worth Rs. 345 crore from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for manufacturing and supplying steam generators.

DLF Ltd gained 1%. The company has determined to deprive its windmill power generation business. According to the company it is a non-core business.

M&M Ltd surged 3.51% as the booking for the company''s newly launched vehicle, Xylo crossed the 12000 level since its launch on 13th January 2009.

Tata Power Company (TPC) went up by 0.17%. The company has commercialised the operation of 250-mega watt (MW) unit 8 of its Trombay Thermal Power Station (TTPS) in Chembur near Mumbai.

Bharat Electronics rose 2.84% after the company said it signed an agreement with Bharat Heavy Electricals to jointly set up a company for solar photo voltaic cell business.

Suzlon Energy advanced 2.54% on report that its overseas unit secured an order for supply of 63 wind turbine generators.

Jet Airways (India) slumped 1.74% after Sahara India moved to court alleging that Jet has partly defaulted in payment relating to the buyout of Sahara Airlines, now JetLite, in April 2007.