Post Session Commentary - Apr 16 2009

After the past few days of strong rally session, the domestic market today took a sharp turn to close in red terrain on intense profit booking. Depressing US index futures weighed on the sentiments. Benchmark indices were under pressure also on political uncertainty as parliamentary election started today. The lower inflation data for the week ended April, 4 2009, and the positive European markets were unable to bring any respite.

The Indian market opened marginally up following positive from global markets. Wednesday, the US stock markets ended in green after late rise in buying momentum came together with a spike in trading volume. However market suddenly turned volatile and started losing ground as selling emerged among the key stocks. Further, market continued to extend its losses despite little unsuccessful attempt to recover. During final trading hours, market slipped sharply to widen its negative gap to more than 3%. BSE Sensex snapped its eight successive sessions rally and ended below 11,000 level. In addition, NSE Nifty ended below 3,400 mark. From the sectoral front, investors off-loaded position across most of the sectors. Among those, mainly Reality, Metal, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas, Power, Consumer Durable and PSU stocks were unable to gain market favor. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks also lost ground during the trading session as lost more than 4% each. However, FMCG stocks were in limelight as witnessed most of the buying from its basket.

Among the Sensex pack 24 stocks ended in red territory and 6 in green. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1742 stocks closed in red while 851 stocks closed in green and 60 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 337.33 points at 10,947.40 and NSE Nifty ended down by 114.65 points at 3,369.50. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 163.16 and 194.46 points at 3,438.73 and 3,905.82 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 11,367.23 and intraday low of 10,900.47.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors (13.50%), Reliance Infra (9.36%), DLF Ltd (8.63%), Tata Steel (8.25%), JP Associates (8%), Hindalco (6.84%), Ranbaxy Lab (6.81%), RCom (5.48%), L&T Ltd (5.38%), Sterlite Industries (4.98%) and Reliance (4.88%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are ITC Ltd (3.21%), Wipro Ltd (2.84%), Sun Pharma (2.05%), HUL (1.51%) and Maruti Suzuki (0.45%).

India''s wholesale price index rose 0.18% for the week ended April, 4 2009 as against the previous week''s annual rise of 0.26%, government data showed on Thursday. However, the annual inflation rate was 7.71% during the corresponding week of the previous year. The index for primary articles group rose by 1.1%. The index for ''food articles'' group grew by 1.2%. On the other hand, the index for non-food articles group raised by 0.7%. The index for fuel, power, light & lubricants rose by 0.5%. The Manufactured products group rose by 0.1%. The index for food products group rose by 0.6%.

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended mixed ahead of key corporate earnings reports from the U.S. However, data from China hinted that its economy may be recovering. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Straits Times index ended lower by 1.92, 86.63 and 14.24 points at 2,534.13, 15,582.99 and 1,891.75 respectively. However, Nikkei 225 and Seoul Composite gained 12.30 and 3.63 points at 8,755.26 and 1,336.72 respectively.

European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading firm In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading up by 32.46 points at 4,582.25 and in London FTSE 100 is trading higher by 32.85 points at 4,001.25.

The BSE Realty index under performed the benchmark indices as lost (9.16%) or 211.79 points to close at 2,100.74. Losers are Housing Development (14.71%), Omaxe Ltd (11.09%), Parsvnath (10.31%), Orbit Co (9.97%) and Anant Raj (9.89%).

The BSE Metal ended down by (6.97%) or 517.39 points at 6,905.12 on profit booking. Losers are Jindal Saw (11.96%), JSW Steel (10.05%), Gujarat NRE C (9.82%), Ispat Indus (9.19%) and NMDC Ltd (9.12 %).

The BSE Capital Goods index also ended lower by (4.95%) or 397.94 points at 7,645.51. Suzlon Energy (18.27%), Gammon Indi (11.35%), Areva (10.62%), Praj Indus (9.53%) and Punj Lloyd (8.25%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE Oil & Gas index lost (4.5%) or 372.01 points at 7,901.37. Scrips that fell are Cairn Ind (9.48%), RNRL (8.74%), Reliance (4.88%), ONGC Ltd (4.8%) and Reliance Pet (4.69%).

The BSE Power stocks dropped by (4.38%) or 94.84 points to close at 2,071.40. Major losers are Suzlon Energy (18.27%), Lanco Infra (11.43%), GVK Power (10.41%), Crompton Greaves (9.95%) and Reliance Infra (9.36 %).

The BSE FMCG index went up by (1.92%) or 39.55 points to close at 2,101.01. Main gainers are Tata Tea (3.99%), ITC Ltd (3.21%), Nestle Ltd (3.16%), HUL (1.51%) and Britania In (0.60%).

Tata Communications dropped by 5.04%. The company has announced its participation in the $ 600 million, new West Cable System. This investment will further boost Tata Communications’ global reach and enhance the company’s investments in the region.

Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) lost 5.38%. The company has recorded a healthy growth in order inflows during FY 2008-09. L&T has bagged a number of prestigious orders, both domestic and international, from diverse sectors totaling to approximately Rs 520 Billion as compared to Rs 420 Billion in the previous year.

Natco Pharma slipped 8.04% on signing a pact with Dr Reddy''s Laboratories for the development, manufacture and supply of a generic oncology drugs, used for cancer treatment.

Tech Mahindra tumbled 5.11%. The Company Law Board (CLB) on Thursday approved the sale of Satyam Computer Services Ltd by Tech Mahindra Ltd that emerged as the highest bidder for the company.

State Bank of India (SBI) dropped by 2.62% The bank is looking the option of another round of rate cut in its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR). During the third quarter of the last financial year, SBI had rolled out 1,000-day deposits at over 10 per cent that helped it to raise around Rs 1,000 crore a day, which has now dropped to around Rs 500 crore a day.

Bank of India fell 3.79%. The bank has announced a cut in deposit rates on domestic rupee term deposits by 25 to 100 basis points, across various maturities.