Post Session Commentary - July 7 2009

Indian market ended on positive zone after showing high instability during the trading session. Stocks managed to maintain gains after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said government spending has to fill a gap left by lower private investment. Firm cues from the European markets also contributed to the upward journey. However, market pared some of its gains during early trading on concerns for huge budget deficit. Meanwhile, stocks witnessed heavy losses yesterday caused by lack of any aggressive economic reforms in the Union Budget 2009-2010. BSE Sensex ended above 14,100 level and NSE Nifty closed around 4,200 mark.

The domestic market started the day on green territory on rebound after previous session’s huge losses led by disappointment over Union Budget. However, the US stocks markets closed in mixed on Monday after a late session rally pushed the Dow into positive territory. Further, benchmark indices soon turned volatile and slipped lower backed by selling pressure at higher level. Despite firm start, investors were careful after yesterday’s fall. Market regained strength during afternoon trade after falling into red but was unable to hold the impetus and again lost ground. Finally, market managed to regain and uphold strength to close the day with gains. From the sectoral front, most of the buying was witnessed in Metal, Auto, FMCG, Capital Goods, Power and Pharma. However, PSU and Oil & Gas stocks remained out of favor as witnessed most of selling from these baskets.

Among the Sensex pack 18 stocks ended in green territory and 12 in red. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1461 stocks closed in red while 1071 stocks closed in green and 98 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 127.05 points or (0.90%) at 14,170.45 and NSE Nifty ended up by 36.45 points or (0.88%) at 4,202.15. BSE Mid Caps closed with gains of 45.46 points at 4,964.34 and Small Caps closed losses of 18.60 points at 5,544.27. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,251.88 and intraday low of 14,000.68.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are ITC Ltd (6.77%), JP Associates (6.65%), Herohonda Motors (5.80%), M&M Ltd (5.64%), ACC Ltd (5.34%), Grasim Industries (5.19%), Maruti Suzuki (4.34%), Bharti Airtel (3.48%), L&T Ltd (2.52%), ICICI Bank (2.51%), Reliance Infra (2.22%) and TCS Ltd (1.94%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Reliance (2.02%), ONGC Ltd (1.91%), RCom (1.93%), Tata Motors (1.24%), Infosys Tech (1.18%), SBI (1.13%), Tata Power (0.96%) and HUL (0.80%).

On the global markets front the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended mostly lower as weaker metal and oil prices pulled commodity and shipping related stocks. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 ended lower by 35.22, 117.14 and 33.08 points at 3,089.45, 17,862.27 and 9,647.49 respectively. However, Straits Times index and Seoul Composite gained 6.17 and 5.26 points at 2,272.26 and 1,434.20 respectively. The Japanese equity market was lower for fifth consecutive session on worries about prospect of global economy.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in green. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading up by 43.29 points at 4,695.11 and in London FTSE 100 is trading higher by 45.22 points at 4,240.13.

The BSE Auto stocks advanced by (3.92%) or 174.93 points to close at 4,634.89. Major gainers are Escorts Ltd (8.80%), Exide Industries (7.96%), Herohonda Motors (5.80%), M&M Ltd (5.64%) and Apollo Tyre (5.64%).

The BSE FMCG index increased by (3.83%) or 88.67 points to close at 2,401.16 the finance minister repeated the government''s drive on the agriculture sector. Main gainers are Marico Ltd (12.68%), ITC Ltd (6.77%), United Spr (4.79%), Britania Industries (4.41%) and Godrej Cons (4.05%).

The BSE Capital Goods index gained (1.67%) or 202.09 points to close at 12,301.85. Gainers are Crompton Greaves (3.82%), Alstom Proje (3.25%), L&T Ltd (2.52%), Usha Martin (2.15%) and Bharat Elec (1.79%).

The BSE Power index increased by (0.97%) or 26.67 points at 2,770.50. Torrent Power (7.76%), Lanco Infra (4.90%), Crompton Greaves (3.82%), Reliance Infra (2.22%) and GVK Power (2.09%) ended in positive territory.

The BSE PSU ended lower by (1.75%) or 136.30 points at 7,636.94. Losers are St Trad Corp (6.91%), Rashtriya Chem & Fert (5.95%), MMTC Ltd (5.90%), Hind copper (2.89%) and Dena Bank (2.53%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index lost (1.32%) or 119.28 points at 8,919.94. Scrips that lost are Essar Oil Ltd (2.78%), Aban Offshore (2.27%), Reliance (2.02%), ONGC Ltd (1.91%) and Reliance Pet (1.88%).

Ambuja Cements Ltd gained 4.64% after a block deal of five lakh shares was executed on NSE at Rs 88.50 per share.

Reddy''s Laboratories Limited advanced by 2.46%. The company announced that its Annual Report on Form 20-F, containing its annual consolidated financial statements forth fiscal year ended 31 March 2009 was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on 6th July 2009.

ITC Ltd zoomed 6.77% to Rs. 210.50 after the government left taxes on cigarettes untouched in the Union Budget 2009-2010.

Maytas Infra Ltd fell 1.14% despite the Karnataka state government awarded two Greenfield airport projects to the company.