Post Session Commentary - June 23 2009

Indian market ended on flat note after recovering sharply from its initial losses. The upturn during the final trading hours was led by sustained buying in key stocks. Firm European markets also contributed to the positive sentiments. However, most of the Asian stocks were in red zone, which led selling pressure in the domestic bourses. Besides, market also exhibited volatility ahead of expiry of June futures and options contracts on coming Thursday, 25th June 2009.

The market extended its previous session’s losses and opened on downbeat note tracking weak cues from the global markets. Asian stocks were lower during early trade and the US Markets closed in deep red on Monday with the S&P 500 slipped below key 900 level on the back of the World Bank grim forecast on major economics. Further, domestic market continued to trade in negative though tried to recover during afternoon trade. However, benchmark indices were unable to hold the momentum and again slipped sharply lower. During the last trading hours market recovered smartly from all its early losses however ended the day in flat note. BSE Sensex ended below 14,400 level and NSE Nifty around 4,250 mark. From the sectoral front, most of the selling was witnessed in Bank, Metal, Consumer Durables, FMCG, Realty and IT stocks. However, Oil & Gas, PSU and Power stocks remained in limelight as observed most of buying from these baskets.

Among the Sensex pack 16 stocks ended in red territory and 14 in green. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1455 stocks closed in red while 1116 stocks closed in green and 68 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed slightly lower by 2.21 points at 14,324.01 whereas NSE Nifty ended marginally up by 11.75 points at 4,247. BSE Mid Caps closed with gains of 11.83 points at 4,942.34 while Small Caps closed with losses 7.17 points at 5,592.40. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,384.19 and intraday low of 14,016.95.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are ICICI Bank (4.05%), HDFC Bank (3.55%), Hindalco (3.32%), ITC Ltd (3.11%), Sterlite Industries (2.82%), DLF Ltd (2.06%), L&T Ltd (1.62%), Infosys Tech (1.12%), Maruti Suzuki (0.98%), TCS Ltd (0.96%) and Bharti Airtel (0.76%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Grasim Industries (4.13%), ONGC Ltd (3.30%), Reliance (3.26%), Tata Motors (2.70%), NTPC Ltd (2.54%), HDFC (2.34%), Tata Power (1.96%), Reliance Infra (1.31%) and Ranbaxy Lab (1.31%).

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended lower. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng Nikkei 225, Straits Times index and Seoul Composite closed down by 3.61, 521.18, 276.66, 40.82 and 39.17 points at 2,892.70, 17,538.37, 9,546.61, 2.226.10 and 1,360.54 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in green. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading higher by 23.05 points at 4,716.45 and in London FTSE 100 is trading up by 7.45 points at. 4,241.50.

The BSE Bank index decreased by (2.14%) or 173.82 points to close at 7,950.32. Main losers are ICICI Bank (4.05%), HDFC Bank (3.55%), Kotak Bank (3.49%), Punjab National Bank (3.45%) and Axis Bank (2.25%).

The BSE Metal index dropped by (1.52%) or 164.13 points at 10,612.02. Scrips that lost are Nalco (5.69%), Hindustan Zinc (5.40%), Sesa Goa Ltd (4.42%), JSW Steel (3.46%) and Hindalco (3.32%).

The BSE Consumer Durable ended down by (1.44%) or 40.75 points at 2,788.51. Losers are Titan Ind (3.16%), Rajesh Export (2.76%) and Blue Star L (1.61%).

The BSE FMCG stocks also lost (1.35%) or 30.61 points to close at 2,241.90. Major losers are ITC Ltd (3.11%), United Brew (1.84%), Marico Ltd (1.59%), United Spr (0.99%) and Nestle Ltd (0.55%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index increased by (2.32%) or 238.19 points at 9,312.93. ONGC Ltd (3.30%), Reliance (3.26%), Reliance Pet (3.13%), Essar Oil Ltd (2.48%) and HPCL (0.79%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE PSU index gained (2.11%) or 162.95 points to close at 7,874.17.Gainers are Engineers In (9.64%), MMTC Ltd (5.00%), ST Trade Corp (4.99%), Dredg Corp (4.86%) and NMDC Ltd (4.76%).

Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd fell 3.69% after net profit declined 16.6% to Rs. 85.32 crore in the year ended March 2009 over the year ended March 2008.

Vishal Information Technologies Ltd ended lower by 3.43%. The company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on June 23, 2009, inter alia, has recommend issue of Bonus Shares in the ratio of One new fully paid Equity Shares for every Two existing Equity Shares held by Shareholders as on Record Date.

Union Bank of India gained 0.49%. The bank has slashed its PLR by a 25-basis-point to 11.75 per cent, with effective from July 1. Union Bank of India is the first bank to cut lending rates following the Finance Minister''s meeting with the chiefs of PSU bank on June 10 in which the minister had asked banks to "explore the possibility" of bringing about a further reduction in their lending rates.

AIA Engineering Ltd advanced 0.34%, after five lakh shares changed hands in two block deals on BSE and NSE combined.