Post Session Commentary - Sep 23 2009

Indian market slumped sharply during final trading to close lower after exhibiting volatility during the trading as investors booked profit in key stocks following recent gains. Benchmark indices were not able to stick on a particular direction on continuous bouts of buying and selling ahead of the F&O expiry scheduled on Thursday, 24th September 2009. Investors were cautious, though tried to recover during early afternoon trade on some buying in key stocks. However, the upturn was short-lived and domestic bourses once again slipped into red. The BSE Sensex ended below 16,750 level and NSE Nifty closed below 5,000 mark.

The domestic market opened on flat note backed by the mixed cues from the markets all over the world. The Asian markets were lower in early trade whereas, the US stock market closed higher on Tuesday after the two-year treasury auction results met with strong demand. In addition, the sharp retreat in dollar encouraged buying in commodities and commodity allied stocks. Further, lack of positive news restricted benchmark indices to gather momentum and volatility ruled the domestic bourses. Meanwhile, during afternoon trade stocks slashed losses after positive opening of European markets. However, market was unable to carry same impetus and slipped again. Market lost more ground during final trading to end the day with losses after huge selling pressure emerged across the board. From the sectoral front, investors off-loaded positions across the sectors barring Oil & Gas stocks. Among those most of the selling was witnessed in Realty, Teck, IT, Capital Goods, FMCG, Power and Auto stocks. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps stocks remained under selling pressure.

Among the Sensex pack 25 stocks ended in red territory and 5 in green territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1785 stocks closed in red while 1001 stocks closed in green and 79 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 166.93 or (0.99%) points at 16,719.50 and NSE Nifty ended down by 50.25 points or (1%) at 4,969.95. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 76.16 and 101.99 points at 6,140.83 and 7,349.03 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 16,905.58 and intraday low of 16,683.78.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates (6.34%), Bharti Airtel (3.54%), RCom (3.01%), M&M Ltd (2.62%), Reliance Infra (2.34%), Hincalco (2.12%), L&T Ltd (2%), HUL (1.98%), ACC Ltd (1.8%), Infosys Tech (1.66%), TCS Ltd (1.60%), Wipro Ltd (1.57%), ITC Ltd (1.33%), DLF Ltd (1.30%) and SBI (1.27%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are HDFC Bank (1.45%), Sterlite Indsutries (1.09%), ONGC Ltd (0.65%), Sun Pharma (0.58%) and Reliance (0.24%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended mostly lower. Investors waited for clues from the US Federal Reserve about the global recovery''s strength. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225 and Seoul Composite closed down by 54.83, 105.62, 73.26 and 7.41 points at 2,842.72, 21,595.52, 10,370.54 and 1,711.47 respectively. However, Singapore''s Straits Times ended with marginal gain of 0.31 points at 2,685.94.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading up. In Paris the CAC 40 is higher 8.92 points at 3,832.44, in Frankfurt DAX index is trading up 13.59 points at 5,722.97 and in London FTSE 100 is trading higher 16.91 points at 5,159.51.

The BSE REALTY index was at 4,414.64 down by 104.26 points or by (2.31%). The main losers were Sobha Dev down by (5.7%) at Rs.258, Housing Dev down by (4.49%) at Rs.321.2, Anant Raj In down by (3.57%) at Rs.140.35, Ansal Infras down by (3.5%) at Rs.75.9 and Unitech Ltd down by (3.19%) at Rs.109.1.

The BSE TECk index was at 3,237.04 down by 65.52 points or by (1.98%). The main losers were Ht Media down by (6.4%) at Rs.125.05, Aptech Ltd down by (4.84%) at Rs.278.35, Rolta Ind down by (3.73%) at Rs.174.2, Ibn18 down by (3.61%) at Rs.112.15 and Bharti Artl down by (3.43%) at Rs.413.4.

The BSE IT index was at 4,562.98 down by 80.03 points or by (1.72%). The main losers were Aptech Ltd down by (4.84%) at Rs.278.35, Rolta Ind down by (3.73%) at Rs.174.2, Mphasis Ltd down by (2.85%) at Rs.639.75, Moser Baer down by (2.72%) at Rs.96.6 and CL Tech down by (2.59%) at Rs.333.

The BSE CAPITAL GOODS index was at 13,500.92 down by 212.45 points or by (1.55%). The main losers were Suzlon Energy lower by (6.10%) at Rs.94.65, Jyoti Struct down by (4.83%) at Rs.158.45, Alstom Proje (4.07%) at Rs.546.85, Lakshmi Machine Works (3.49%) at Rs.1,378 and Usha Martin down by (3.42%) at Rs.70.55.

The BSE FMCG index was at 2,543.75 down by 33.25 points or by (1.29%) The main losers were Godrej Cons down by (2.5%) at Rs.241.95, HUL down by (2.38%) at Rs.258.2, United Brew down by (2.32%) at Rs.145.5, Colgate Palm down by (1.54%) at Rs.621.9 and I T C Ltd down by (1.33%) at Rs.230.2.

The BSE POWER index was at 3,032.29 down by 34.24 points or by (1.12%). The main losers were Suzlonenergy down by (6.1%) at Rs.94.65, Lanco Infra down by (4.29%) at Rs.460.45, Rpower down by (2.85%) at Rs.167.3, Neyveli Lig down by (2.64%) at Rs.132.95 and Rel Infra down by (2.34%) at Rs.1216.3.

The BSE OIL&GAS index was at 10,139.86 up by 16.67 points or by (0.16%). The main gainers were Gail India up by (1.42%) at Rs.353.85, Indian Oil C up by (0.74%) at Rs.661.9, Ong Corp Ltd up by (0.5%) at Rs.1161.25 and Reliance up by (0.24%) at Rs.2101.4.

Opto Circuits (I) Ltd. lost 0.97%. The company has signed a strategic long-term agreement with a European manufacturer and distributor of medical equipment.

Tata Communications Ltd dropped by 0.25%. The company has launched its "Internet Clean Pipe Solution" for the small and medium business segments.

Patni Computer System ended down by 1.79%. The company in India has deployed VMware visualization platform to arrest rising IT management costs resulting from supporting strong business growth worldwide.

TCS Ltd decreased by 1.60%. Andhra Pradesh government awards country''s largest SWAN project to Tata Consultancy Services on five year Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model.

ONGC Ltd gained 0.50%. ONGC retains its position as the company with highest dividend payout. AGM approves Dividend for FY ''09 at Rs 32 per share, at par with last year.

Kale Consultants Ltd. advanced by 4.99%. The company announced that it has been awarded the "Emerging IT Solutions Provider in the Logistics Industry" at the Express, Logistics & Supply Chain (ELSC) Conclave 2009.