Post Session Commentary - Aug 26 2009

Domestic market managed to extend its’ initial gains to end in a positive zone. Strong buying over the ground was contributed by positive Asian markets along with higher US index futures. Strong US economic data also added to the positive sentiments. However, stocks were little volatile ahead of the expiry of the August F&O series on Thursday, 27 August 2009. In addition, negative European markets constrained the upward journey of benchmark indices and domestic bourses came off the day’s high during mid session. In the meantime, profit booking was also witnessed following recent rally. The BSE Sensex ended above 15,750 level and NSE Nifty closed above 4,650 mark.

Market extended its previous session’s winning streak and opened the day on positive note tracking firm global cues. The US stocks markets closed higher on Monday, though it came off intraday highs. Market got a boost from an encouraging report on home prices and an unexpected jump in consumer confidence. The gain during the trading contributed stocks to register a new closing high for 2009. Further, Indian stocks exhibited little instability ahead of the F&O expiry due later this week. During mid session, benchmark indices came off the days’ high tracking weak European markets. The market further gained momentum and continued to remain healthy positioned in positive terrain till end on sustained buying support in key stocks. From the sectoral front, IT, Teck, Realty, Pharma, Power and Oil & Gas stocks witnessed most of the buying from these baskets. BSE Midcap and Smallcap stocks also followed the same trend. However, FMCG and Consumer Durable stocks remained out of favour during the trading.

Among the Sensex pack 18 stocks ended in green territory and 12 in red territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1943 stocks closed in green while 851 stocks closed in red and 73 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 81.38 points at 15,769.85 and NSE Nifty ended up by 21.50 points at 4,680.85. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 63.02 and 133.11 points at 5,800.55 and 6,878.35 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,831.49 and intraday low of 15,695.94.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Infosys Tech (4.07%), Sterlite Industries (3.92%), TCS Ltd (3.75%), Wipro Ltd (2.34%), RCom (1.98%), Tata Motors (1.71%), Tata Power (1.70%), DLF Ltd (1.47%), Sun Pharma (1.33%), ACC Ltd (1.22%) and Reliance (0.78%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are HUL (2.29%), HDFC Bank (1.79%), Herohonda Motors (1.19%), Grasim Industries (0.98%), Maruti Suzuki (0.94%), ITC Ltd (0.89%) and ONGC Ltd (0.88%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, recovered yesterday’s losses and ended higher. Upbeat data from the US added to the hopes of soon recover. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Singapore''s Straits Times Index and Seoul Composite closed lower by 51.79, 21.08, 142.35, 9.67 and 12.74 points at 2,967.59, 20,456.32, 10,639.71, 2,628.43 and 1,614.12 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in red. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading lower by 22.06 points at 5,535.03 and in London FTSE 100 is trading down by 13.03 points at 4,903.77. The improvement of German business conditions index failed to motivate investors amid concerns that markets could have reached overbought levels after several months of constant rally. German Ifo Business climate index has improved higher than expectations in August, to post 90.5 level from 87.3 in July, beating experts expectations of a reading around 89.0.

The BSE IT index outperformed the benchmark indices as gained (3.35%) or 138.51 points at 4,272.46 on solid readings for US home prices and US consumer confidence overnight. Gainers are Financ Tech (6.61%), Oracle Fin (5.45%), Infosys Tech (4.07%), TCS Ltd (3.75%) and Tech Mahindra (3.78%).

The BSE Teck index increased by (2.50%) or 74.93 points at 3,073.05. Gainers are UTV Software (15.37%), Deccan Chr (12.15%), IBN18 (11.02%), IOL Netcom (9.97%) and Tel Eighteen (9.19%).

The BSE Realty index ended up by (1.23%) or 50.19 points at 4,142.94 as Ansal Infra (15.46%), Pheonix Mill (10.95%), Anant Raj (7.18%), Penland Ltd (7.10%) and Parsvnath (2.59%) ended in green.

The BSE Pharma index closed higher by (0.80%) or 30.76 points at 3,896.52. Main gainers are Biocon Ltd (6.86%), Orchid Chem (3.55%), Opto Circuit (3.29%), Sterl Biotec (3.03%) and Sunpha Adv (2.78%).

The BSE Power index advanced by (0.63%) or 18.59 points at 2,977.98. Gainers are GMR Infra (5.62%), Reliance Power (1.74%), Tata Power (1.70%), Suzlon Energy (1.63%) and Crompton Greaves (1.57%).

The BSE FMCG index lost (1.01%) or 26.49 points at 2,597.41 on concerns that averse monsoon rains may crimp rural sales. Losers are HUL (2.29%), United Spr (1.94%), Britania Industries (1.66%) and ITC Ltd (0.89%).

Aban offshore ended higher by 26.92% after company expects revenue of US$695 million from two contracts it signed for deploying four rigs.

Kale Consultants Ltd. gained 3%. The company, which is the leading provider of solutions to the airline, logistics and travel industry, announced that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has chosen Kale as the prime technology supplier for the development of its industry-wide interline settlement platform Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS) initiative.

Phoenix Mills Ltd zoomed 10.95% after a block deal of four lakh shares was executed on NSE at Rs. 157.40 per share.

Tilaknagar Industries Ltd advanced 2.43% after the company fixed 3 September 2009 as the record date for a 2:1 bonus issue.

Ansal Properties & Infrastructure Ltd gained 15.46% after it revealed its board will meet on 28 August 2009 to consider fund raising

Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd (PSTL) gained 4.89%. The company has decided to offload stake of more than 40% in its movie production company to a Kolkata-based corporation. The new partner is likely to infuse around Rs 100 crore, which would address the company''s immediate liquidity issue. The money would be utilised to restart production of 17 films.

HCL Technologies Limited dropped by 1.78%. The company announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Optimation, a top ICT services specialist in New Zealand. The new partnership will combine HCL''s global scale and demonstrated capability in delivering high quality IT services with Optimation''s local New Zealand expertise.