Post Session Commentary - Aug 18 2009

Domestic market ended the session with handsome gains backed by significant buying that emerged after Asian markets reversed losses. Higher US index futures also added to sentiments. Market touched the day’s high during afternoon trade mirroring firm European markets though afterwards pared gains a bit. However, monsoon worries continued to remain a key concern as 9 States have declared drought. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that government has no proposal to write off loans taken by farmers as it did in 2008 in its first term in office. Further, India’s July export is down 26% from a year earlier. The BSE Sensex ended above 15,000 level and NSE Nifty closed above 4,450 mark.

Market opened on flat note today after reporting heavy selling in previous session. The US stocks markets closed lower on Monday, marking the worst single-session percentage loss in six weeks due to huge selling pressure. Slower-than-expected economic growth in Japan prompted a global sell-off on worries that an economic rebound may be further off than previously considered. Investors were not exciting by the news that the empire state manufacturing index moved into positive territory, signaling growth for the first time since April 2008. Further, Indian benchmark indices bounced back, as investors looked for some bargain chasing after yesterday’s sharp fall. Market touched day’s high during afternoon trade in line with recovery in other Asian stocks along with positive European markets.

Finally, market closed on positive note on account of sustained buying. From the sectoral front, all indices ended in green. Among those, most of the buying was seen in Capital Goods, Realty, Metal, Power, PSU, Auto, Bank, and FMCG stocks. Broader markets also followed the same trend as BSE Midcap and Smallcap stocks gained more than 2% each.

Among the Sensex pack 26 stocks ended in green territory and 4 stocks ended in red territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1741 stocks closed in red while 896 stocks closed in green and 78 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 250.34 points or (1.69%) at 15,035.26 and NSE Nifty ended up by 71 points or (1.62%) at 4,458.90. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 111.04 and 129.74 points at 5,496.55 and 6,341.45 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,134.51 and intraday low of 14,740.26.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Hindalco (6.08%), JP Associates (4.73%), L&T Ltd (4.66%), HUL (3.45%), Tata Steel (3.14%), HDFC (3.06%), DLF Ltd (2.95%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (2.89%), Bharti Airtel (2.87%), BHEL (2.76%), HDFC Bank (2.39%), RCom (2.36%), ICICI Bank (2.10%), Reliance Infra (2.08%), Maruti Suzuki (2.04%), ONGC (1.46%) and SBI (1.21%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Infosys Tech (0.59%), Grasim Industries (0.35%), TCS Ltd (0.19%), Sun Pharma (0.19%).

India''s exports fell 26% from a year earlier in July, federal Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said on Tuesday. The country''s imports during July fell 35%-36% from the same month last year.

On the global markets front the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended with gains. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Singapore''s Straits Times Index and Seoul Composite closed higher by 40.25, 169.20, 16.35, 21.74 and 3.18 points at 2,910.88, 20,306.27, 10,284.96, 2,567.72 and 1,550.24 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in green helped by some upbeat German economic data. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading higher 29.77 points at 5,231.38 and in London FTSE 100 is trading up by 31.39 points at 4,676.40.

The BSE Capital Goods index was at 12,313.50 up by 432.33 points or by (3.64%). The main gainers were Siemens Ltd up by (5.2%), Punj Lloyd up by (4.86%), Larsen & Toubro Ltd. up by (4.66%), Aiaengineer up by (3.98%) and Jyoti Struct up by (3.68%).

The BSE Realty index was at 3,750.40 up by 87.70 points or by (2.39%). The main gainers were Indbul Real up by (5.47%), Housing Dev up by (4.01%), Penland Ltd up by (3.43%), Anant Raj In up by (3.03%) and DLF Ltd up by (2.95%).

The BSE Metal index was at 12,213.25 up by 274.34 points or by (2.3%). The main gainers were Hindalco up by (6.08%), JSW Steel up by (3.8%), Nalco up by (3.55%), Jindal Saw up by (3.48%) and Welsp Guj Sr up by (3.27%).

The BSE Power index was at 2,868.06 up by 59.30 points or by (2.11%). The main gainers were Siemens Ltd up by (5.2%) at Rs.453.95, Suzlon Energy up by (3.57%), Gmr Infrastr up by (3.44%), Crompton Greaves Ltd. up by (3.12%) and BHEL up by (2.76%).

The BSE PSU index was at 8,202.09 up by 144.20 points or by (1.79%). The main gainers were Andhra Bank up by (5.1%) at, Power Finan up by (5%), Corporation up by (4.47%), Contain Corp up by (4.38%) and Mangalore Refineries & Petroch up by (3.81%).

The BSE Auto index was at 5,393.24 up by 89.74 points or by (1.69%). The main gainers were Bharat Forge up by (8.5%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd up by (2.89%), Ashok Leylnd up by (2.73%), Escorts Ltd. up by (2.44%) and Apollo Tyre up by (2.3%).

Ahluwalia Contracts India Ltd advanced by 4.13%. The company informed regarding the recent Awards of New Projects worth of Rs 215.06 Crores.

HDFC ended up by 3.06%. The leading mortgage lender has started its Rs 4,300 crore immediate fund raising exercise. The amount to be raised from the issue of NCDs would be about Rs 4,000 crore. Further the company is issuing 1.1 crore warrants, each convertible into one equity share of the company within three years, at a price of Rs 3,000. The stock is now trading higher by (3.12%) at Rs. 2,320.

Bharti Airtel ended higher by 2.87% after telecom major received bids from more than a dozen overseas banks keen to fund its around USD 23-bn merger deal with top South African mobile company MTN.

Nava Bharat Ventures Ltd spurted 7.18% after the Reserve Bank of India raised the foreign portfolio investment limit in the company to 40%.

Moser Baer increased by 1.88%. The company launched new optical Media high-end products in India.

HCL Technologies Ltd. lost 0.85%. The company said that it has been informed by Reader''s Digest Association (RDA) that the latest developments at its end do not affect its relationship and engagement with HCL.

Tata Communications closed lower by 0.56%. The company, together with its supplier, Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, today announced that they have completed the installation, testing and commissioning of the TGN-lntra Asia {TGN-IA) Cable System.