Post Session Commentary - Apr 8 2009

Indian market rebounded sharply from its initial losses to end the day with handsome gains on strong buying emerged during final trading hours. Recovery in European markets along with US index futures after touching day’s low, contributed to positive sentiments. US index futures recovered after a report that the US Treasury has decided to extend bailout funds to several stressed life insurance companies. However, market tumbled during the early trading and lost more than 3% tracking lower stocks all over the world. A gloomy start to the U.S. earnings season battered expectation of ending economic slump. Data showing fall in exports for the sixth month in a row at $12 billion in March 2009, also fueled the negative attitude till afternoon trade.

The market opened sharply lower on the back of weak cues form the global markets. The US stock markets on Tuesday ended lower for second successive day, ahead of earnings season and concerns about the banking industry. In the domestic arena, fears regarding the earnings for the March quarter and uncertainty about general elections kept investor sentiment unstable during early trading. Further, benchmark indices continued to trade in negative terrain, though were simultaneously also trimming their losses and finally managed to recover from day’s low. Market ended up for the fifth consecutive session on huge buying across the board. BSE Sensex ended above 10,700 level and NSE Nifty above 3,300 mark. From the sectoral front, Reality, Consumer Durables, FMCG, PSU, Oil & Gas, Pharma, Capital Goods and Pharma stocks contributed to most of the buying. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks also remained on buyers’ radar and gained more than 3% and 4% respectively. However, Bank stocks remained out of favour during the trading.

Among the Sensex pack 22 stocks ended in green territory and 8 in red. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained extremely positive as 2021 stocks closed in green while 468 stocks closed in red and 63 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 207.47 points at 10,742.34 and NSE Nifty ended up by 86.35 points at 3,342.95. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 99.51 and 158.73 points at 3,3,02.59 and 3,705.97 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 10,778.11 and intraday low of 10,171.91.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates (8.71%), NTPC Ltd (6.70 %), Tata Motors (6.29%), HUL (6.06%), ITC Ltd (5.15%), L&T Ltd (4.71%), Wipro Ltd (4.69%), TCS Ltd (4.35%), Sun Pharma (4.20%), Reliance (3.10%) and Tata Steel (2.82%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are M&M Ltd (3.54%), Hindalco (2.92%), RCom (2.18%), HDFC Bank (1.61%), BHEL (1%) and Sterlite Industries (0.52%).

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended lower on earning worries after a dismal start to the U.S. earnings season. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Straits Times index and Seoul Composite ended lower by 91.8, 454.11, 237.84, 18.43 and 38.03 points at 2,347.39, 14,474.86, 8,595.01, 1,783.96 and 1,262.07 respectively.


European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading in red. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading lower by 14.63 points at 4,307.87 and in London FTSE 100 is trading down by 27.20 points at. 3,903.32.

The BSE Realty index gained (4.74%) or 87.58 points to close at 1,936.41 on hopes that lower rates will spur housing demand. Gainers are Orbit Co (18.44%), Indiabull Real (12.12%), Ansal Infra (8.61%), Parsvnath (8.14%) and Unitech Ltd (6.93%).

The BSE Consumer Durables ended up by (4.62%) or 83.94 points at 1,901.32. Gainers are Titan Ind (8.03%), Blue Star (2.88%), Videocon Ind (2.66%), Rajesh Export (2.16%) and Gitanjali GE (0.96%).

The BSE FMCG index increased by (4.47%) or 88.99 points at 2,078.37 on the expectations of better 4QFY09 results following reports of higher advance tax payment by these firms. United Brew (9.65%), HUL (6.06%), HUL (5.15%), Marico Ltd (4.26%) and United Brew (2.85%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE PSU stocks also advanced by (3.54%) or 196.32 points to close at 5,735.89. Major gainers are Hind Copper (19.98%), St Trade Corp (19.98%), Nalco (8.85%), MMTC Ltd (8.80%) and NTPC Ltd (6.70%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index gained (3.24%) or 251.18 points at 7,998.76. Scrips that gained are Essar Oil Ltd (8.43%), Gail India (7.82%), RNRL (5.65%), Aban Offshore (3.93%) and IOC Ltd (3.78%).

The BSE Bank index lost (0.22%) or 10.98 points to close at 4,915.29 on fears of rising defaults in a weakening economy and on decline in American Depository Receipts. Main losers are Yes Bank (4.91%), IDBI Bank (4.19%), Allahabad Bank (3.19%), Indus Ind Bank (3.14%) and Karnataka Bank (2.53%).

Religare enterprises ended higher by 0.18%. Religare Venture Capital Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Religare Enterprises Limited announced a 50:50 joint venture (subject to regulatory approvals, if any) with Milestone Capital, leading Private Equity player for managing a Rs. 600 crore Healthcare and Education fund to be raised domestically.

Aurobindo Pharma advanced 3.61% on receiving approval from Swissmedic, Government of Switzerland, for launch of a new drug in Switzerland.

Satyam Computer gained 1.11%. The company announced its partnership with Pentaho Corporation, a leading Open Source Business Intelligence (OSBI) product company. As a Silver Certified partner for system integration and a Pentaho OEM partner, Satyam will host ''On Demand BI Solutions'' for customers on Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Edition.

NIIT Ltd went up by 7.57% after the company and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) have entered into an agreement to provide ICT Education in 29 Municipal Schools in the city.

NTPC Ltd reported 6.70% increase as reported 5.6% increase in its provisional net profit for 2008-09. The power company posted Rs.7,827.4 crore as profit for 2008-09, as compared to Rs.7,414.8 crore of previous year.

Tata Motors surged 6.29%. The company will set up a heavy truck manufacturing facility with a capacity of 1,500 units per annum in Myanmar. The plant is being set up following an agreement between the governments of India and Myanmar.

TCS Ltd gained 4.35%. The software exporter has won $80-million outsourcing contract from UK’s Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. The company will will help CMEC implement and integrate various applications, including Oracle’s Siebel customer relationship management software and TCS’ Bancs software.

BHEL lost 1%. The company has signed a ten-year technology transfer agreement with the UK-based Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd.