Post Session Commentary - Apr 15 2009

Domestic market rallied during final trading hours to close the day with handsome gains on sustained buying support. Firm US index futures along with little recovery in European market led sharp rebound from initial lows in the domestic bourses. The hopes of further ease in RBI’s monetary policy in annual review on 21st April 2009, also contributed to the positive attitude.

The Indian market belled the day on negative note tracking weak cues from the global markets. Tuesday, the US stock markets ended in red led by financial stocks that fell out of favor and disappointing retail sales data. In addition, disappointing quarterly results from the IT bellwether Infosys Technologies also weighed on the sentiments. Further, market managed to change its’ direction to northward on solid gains in benchmark indices and fresh buying by foreign funds. Stocks continued to extend their gains till end due to strong buying over the ground. BSE Sensex breached 11,300 level and NSE Nifty crossed 3,400 mark to close around 4,000. From the sectoral front, most of the indices ended in green barring IT stocks. Besides, most of the buying was seen in Reality, Capital Goods, Power, Bank, Pharma, Auto, Metal and PSU stocks. Broader indices outperformed today as Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks added more than 3% and 5% respectively.

Among the Sensex pack 22 stocks ended in green territory, 7 in red and 1 remained unchanged. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained extremely positive as 2173 stocks closed in green while 463 stocks closed in red and 67 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 317.51 points at 11,284.73 and NSE Nifty ended up by 101.55 points at 3,484.15. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 136.97 and 208.29 points at 3,601.89 and 4,123.45 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 11,337.75 and intraday low of 10,719.18.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors (11.50%), DLF Ltd (10%), BHEL (9.48%), Reliance Infra (7%), ICICI Bank (6.77%), L&T Ltd (6.65%), SBI (6.38%), Ranbaxy Lab (6.25%) and Sun Pharma (5.63%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Infosys Tech (2.72%), TCS Ltd (2.39%), HDFC Bank (1.17%), Tata Power (0.86%) and Sterlite Ind (0.75%).

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended mixed following a weaker closing on Wall Street. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Straits Times index ended higher by 8.88, 89.46 and 8.97 points at 2,536.06, 15,669.62 and 1,905.99 respectively. However, Nikkei 225 and Seoul Composite lost 99.72 and 9.54 points at 8,742.96 and 1,333.09 respectively.

European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading mixed. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading down by 22.74 points at 4,534.27 whereas in London FTSE 100 is trading up by 1.58 points at 3,990.57.

The BSE Realty index gained (8.79%) or 189.77 points to close at 2,312.53 on hopes that lower rates will spur housing demand. Gainers are Ansal Infra (17.07%), Unitech Ltd (14.81%), Penland Ltd (10.33%), DLF Ltd (10%) and Anant Raj (9.17%).

The BSE Capital Goods index also ended higher by (7.36%) or 551.15 points at 8,043.45. Lakshmi MA W (16.36%), Punj Lloyd (13.97%), Crompton Greaves (11.90%), Bharat Bijli (10%) and SKF India (9.77%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE Power stocks advanced by (5.19%) or 106.16 points to close at 2,166.24. Major gainers are Lanco Infra (21.59%), Crompton Greaves (11.90%), BHEL (9.48%), Siemens Ltd (7.35%) and Suzlon Energy (7.09%).

The BSE Bank index gained (4.53%) or 240.3 points at 5,541.45 on expectation of a further easing of the monetary policy by the regulatory body with headline inflation nearing to zero. Scrips that advanced are Axis Bank (9.09%), Indian Overseas Bank (8.84%), IDBI Bank (7.92%), Yes Bank (7.78%) and ICICI Bank (6.77%).

The BSE Pharma index went up by (4.05%) or 120.51 points to close at 3,098.56. Main gainers are Sunpha Adv (15.42%), Orchid Chem (12.94%), Dishman Pharma (10.75%), Wockhardt Ltd (10.55%) and Aurobindo Pharma (8.81%).

The BSE Auto ended up by (3.86%) or 130.57 points at 3,515.31. Gainers are Tata Motors (11.50%), Ashok Leyland (7.28%), Bharat Forge (6.96%), M&M Ltd (5.39%) and Escorts Ltd (4.83%).

The BSE IT index lost (1.71%) or 42.78 points to close at 2,444.55. Main losers are Infosys Tech (2.72%), TCS Ltd (2.39%) and Financ Tech (0.35%).

Tata Motors surged 11.50% on report that it repurchased and extinguished its US and Japan listed foreign currency convertible bonds. The buyback of FCCBs will help reduce liabilities

Larsen & Toubro ended up by 6.65%. The company and Atomstroyexport (ASE) of Russia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (M0U) for co-operation between the two companies for Russian design reactors VVER 1000.

GHCL Ltd surged 5% on report that it had repurchased foreign currency convertible bonds worth $11 million at a discount and extinguished the same.

Pantaoon Retail India advanced by 3.17% after the board of directors approved raising funds of Rs1,500 crore through various routes and reorganizing the business.

Maruti Suzuki gained 2.96%. The company plans to roll out this year mits Bharat Stage (BS 4) compliant models in a phased manner. The company said it may not be able to make all its models acquiescent at the same time due to its vast product portfolio.

Infosys Technologies dropped by 2.72%. The company announced its fourth quarter results today. The company’s net profit in Q4 FY09 stood at Rs. 16.13bn as against Rs. 16.41bn in the previous quarter, marking a sequential drop of 1.7%. Revenue for the fourth quarter is down 2.6% QoQ at Rs56.35bn as against Rs57.86bn in Q3 FY09. Infosys has recommended a final dividend of Rs. 13.5 per share. Also Infosys expects a decline in revenue by 6.7% to 3.1% for FY10.