Post Session Commentary - June 25 2009

Indian market closed in negative note after trimming all its initial gains. Market was showing volatility during the trading on expiry of June futures and options contracts today, 25th June 2009. Selling from FIIs along with monsoon delay weigh on the investor’s sentiments. In addition, weak European markets also took beating on the bourses. However, during initial trading market was trading with gains on the back of strong sentiments across the other Asian markets. Moreover, inflation remained in the negative zone for the second week in a row as it came in at -1.14% for the week ended June 13, 2009 as against the previous week''s annual fall of 1.61%.

The market opened higher supported by firm trading in other Asian stocks along. However the US Markets closed in mixed on Wednesday strong start of the session on the back of better than expected durable-goods report and better-than-expected fourth quarter results and upside first quarter earnings per share guidance by Oracle. Further, domestic market turned volatile ahead of the expiry of the F&O series today. Benchmark indices tried to hold the gains but slipped sharply lower during last trading hours due to forecast of a below normal monsoon rains for the first time in four years and selling by foreign funds. Finally, market concluded its southward journey towards the end of session backed by significant selling pressure in key stocks. BSE Sensex ended below 14,400 level and NSE Nifty below 4,250 mark. From the sectoral front, most of the selling was emerged in Auto, Oil & Gas, PSU, Consumer Durables, Power, FMCG and Metal stocks. BSE Midcap and Smallcap stocks also folloed the same trend. However, Realty, Bank and Capital Goods stocks witnessed most of buying from these baskets.

Among the Sensex pack 19 stocks ended in red territory and 11 in green. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1410 stocks closed in green while 1214 stocks closed in red and 79 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 77.11 points at 14,345.62 and NSE Nifty ended down by 51.10 points at 4,241.85. BSE Mid Caps closed with losses of 9.94 and 26.01 points at 5,049.90 and 5,693.02 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,578.46 and intraday low of 14,261.14.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors (5.43%), Sun Pharma (3.47%), Maruti Suzuki (3.10%), M&M Ltd (2.94%), BHEL (2.73%), ONGC Ltd (2.45%), Ranbaxy Lab (2.36%), ITC Ltd (2.29%), Tata Steel (2.12%), NTPC Ltd (2.11%) and Reliance (2.03%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are HDFC (2.98%), JP Associates (2.04%), Tata Power (1.85%), ACC Ltd (1.73%), ICICI Bank (1.36%), Grasim Industries (1.27%), L&T Ltd (1.25%), Hindalco (1.07%) and Sterlite Industries (0.94%).

The wholesale price index of India came in at -1.14% for the week ended June 13, 2009 as against the previous week''s annual fall of 1.61%, government data showed on Thursday. However the inflation was 11.8% during the corresponding week ended June 14, 2008 of the previous year. The index for primary articles grew 0.1% that for fuel and power by 0.4% and of manufactured products by 1%. The wholesale price index is more closely watched than the consumer price index, which is published monthly, because it covers a higher number of products and is released weekly.

On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended in green. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng Nikkei 225, Straits Times index and Seoul Composite closed up by 2.75, 382.88, 205.76, 23.50 and 28.94 points at 2,925.05, 18,275.03, 9,796.08, 2.302.46 and 1,392.73 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in negative terrain. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading lower by 73.60 points at 4,762.41 and in London FTSE 100 is trading down by 33.98 points at. 4,246.

The BSE Auto index tumbled (2.18%) or 102.91 points to close at 4,618.81 on recent reports that the government may hike fuel prices. Main losers are Escorts Ltd (5.98%), Tata Motors (5.43%), Maruti Suzuki (3.10%), M&M Ltd (2.94%) and Exide Industries (2.65%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index decreased by (2.10%) or 195.57 points at 9,120.11. Aban Offshore (4.27%), Essar Oil Ltd (3.74%), HPCL (3.16%), BPCL (3.05%) and ONGC Ltd (2.45%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE PSU index dropped by (1.71%) or 135.47 points to close at 7,779.55. Losers are Engineers In (4.72%), J&K Bank (3.67%), Bank of Baroda (3.34%), HPCL (3.16%) and MMTC Ltd (3.09%).

The BSE Consumer Durable ended down by (1.43%) or 40.46 points at 2,792.82. Losers are Rajesh Export (7.00%), Titan Ind (3.18%), Gitanjali GE (2.89%) and Videocon Ind (2.48%).

The BSE Power stocks also lost (1.41%) or 40.46 points to close at 2,836.60. Major losers are Torrent Power (4.22%), Lanco Infra (3.54%), RPower (3.26%), GMR Infra (3.05%) and BHEL (2.73%).

The BSE Realty index gained (0.53%) or 17.26 points at 3,268.29. Scrips that gained are Unitech Ltd (5.19%), Pheonox Mill (4.79%), Anant Raj (3.00%), Sobha Dev (1.51%) and Omaxe Ltd (0.31%).

JSL Ltd retreated 6.07% after the company posted a net loss of Rs. 161.23 crore in Q4 March 2009 as compared to net profit of Rs. 53.11 crore in Q4 March 2008.

State Bank of India fell by 0.71%. The bank yesterday slashed its benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to 11.75 per cent. The Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) was revised down by 50 basis points with effect from June 29, SBI informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. This move would benefit home, car and corporate loan customers.

Bank of India dropped slightly by 0.69%. The bank will raise funds up to Rs 13,006 crore through issuance of innovative perpetual debt instruments as well as preference shares, tier II bonds and upper tier II capital bonds. The bank’s board of directors have given a green signal to rise tier I and tier II capital.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) lost 2.45%. The company will have to pay a royalty of Rs 13,792 crore to the government on behalf of Cairn India in the prolific Rajasthan oilfields as the firm has been made liable to pay statutory levies on total production irrespective of its stake.

Unitech Ltd is ended up by 5.19%. The company has announced the Audited results for the year ended March 31, 2009. The Company has posted a profit after tax of Rs 7396.60 million for the year ended March 31, 2009 as compared to Rs 10306.80 million for the year ended March 31, 2008. Total Income has decreased from Rs 29697.20 million for the year ended March 31, 2008 to Rs 24549.10 million for the year ended March 31, 2009.

Areva T&D went up 1.56%, as the company bagged Rs 120 crore order.