Post Session Commentary - Sep 29 2009

Indian market extended its initial gains to close higher a wave of merger-and-acquisition activity in US market, glimmered a rally in Asian Stocks. . Further, stocks raised also on sustained buying sentiments. Though, stocks pared some of its gains during afternoon trading as some profit booking emerged due to settlement issue, as the banks will remain closed tomorrow due to half yearly book closure. However, the markets managed to regain its momentum despite negative European stocks. In addition, benchmark indices witnessed a bit of volatility ahead of the closing of the market on coming Friday (Oct 2, 2009) due to celebration of the Gandhi Jayanti. The BSE Sensex ended above 16,800 level and NSE Nifty closed above 5,000 mark.

The market opened today on pleasant note along with all other Asian counter parts. Asian stocks were firm and the US stock market closed higher on Monday on the back of some merger-and-acquisition activity that boosted sentiments. Xerox Corporation has agreed to buy Affiliated Computer Services Inc. for about $5.75 billion in cash and stock. Tech stocks were mostly higher, with the Nasdaq outperformed the broader indices. Further, Indian benchmark indices continued hold gains on significant buying over the counters. Besides, stocks witnessed a bit of volatility and pared gains during early afternoon trade before regaining strength again. Finally, market closed with gains tracking positive cues from Asian stocks. From the sectoral front, IT, Phrma, Teck, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables and Bank stocks contributed to most of the buying. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps stocks also followed the same trend. However, Realty stocks witnessed most of the selling from its baskets.

Among the Sensex pack 19 stocks ended in green territory and 11 in red territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1660 stocks closed in green while 1104 stocks closed in red and 88 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

As per provisional figures, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 159.91 or (0.96%) points at 16852.91 and NSE Nifty ended up by 47.90 points or (0.97%) at 5,006.85. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 37.87 and 69.34 points at 6,264.80 and 7,519.59 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 16,907.84 and intraday low of 16,802.80.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Sun Pharma (6.09%), TCS Ltd (3.98%), ICICI Bank (3.12%), Wipro Ltd (2.71%), ONGC Ltd (2.49%), Infosys Tech (1.89%), Tata Power (1.80%), Reliance (1.70%), HUL (1.25%), BHEL (1.22%), Tata Steel (1.13%) and Bharti Airtel (1.09%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are SBI (2.26%), Reliance (1.60%), JP Associates (1.35%), RCom (0.60%), Tata Motors (0.35%) and ACC Ltd (0.34%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended mostly higher as investors are bullish tracking cues from Wall Street. Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Singapore''s Straits and Seoul Composite ended higher by 424.76, 90.68, 34.06 and 14.5 points at 21,013.17, 10,100.20, 2,663.31 and 1,690.05 respectively. However, Shanghai Composite lost 8.99 points at 2,754.54.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading down on profit taking following Monday''s rally. In Paris the CAC 40 is lower 15.45 points at 3,809.55, in Frankfurt DAX index is trading down 28.18 points at 5,708.13 and in London FTSE 100 is trading lower by 13.12 points at 5,152.58.

The BSE IT index ended higher by (2.26%) or 99.85 points at 4,513.31 on hopes of a revival in US economy. Main gainers are Patni Computer (5.50%), Mphasis Ltd (5.23%), TCS Ltd (3.98%), Oracle Fin (3.01%) and NIIT Ltd (2.94%).

The BSE Pharma index gained (1.63%) or 70.17 points 4,379.66. Gainers are Dishman Pharma (9.78%), IPCA Lab (6.15%), Sun Pharma (6.09%), Sunpha Adv (4.76%) and Cipla Ltd (4.73%).

The BSE Teck index closed higher by (1.59%) 50.50 points at 3,227.47. Gainers are Patni Computer (5.50%), Mphasis Ltd (5.23%), TCS Ltd (3.98%), NIIT Ltd (2.94%) and Wipro Ltd (2.71%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index advanced by (1.52%) or 155.5 points at 10,395.65. Gainers are Essar Oil Ltd (2.88%), ONGC Ltd (2.49%), Gail India (2.25%), Reliance (1.70%) and RNRL (1.09%).

The BSE Consumer Durable index ended up by (1.35%) or 46.98 points at 3,516.41, as Videocon Ind (2.88%), Blue Star L (1.49%), Titan Ind (0.66%), Gitanjali GE (0.59%) and Rajesh Export (0.20%) ended in green.

The BSE Realty index decreased by (0.65%) or 28.87 points at 4,446.06. Losers are Pheonix Mill (2.69%), Ackruti (2.40%), Penland Ltd (1.87%), Unitech Ltd (1.60%) and Parsvnath (1.11%).

Tata Consultancy Services rose 3.98% after the company secured a contract from Carnation Auto for providing end-to-end system integration services.

Aurobindo Pharma Limited ended higher by 1.16%. The company has received "Outstanding Export Performance Award" for the year 2008-09 from Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India set up by Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India (Pharmexcil) at the recent Indo-Africa Pharma Business Meet in Hyderabad.

MindTree Ltd. closed up by 4.20%. The company announced that it has signed an agreement with Kyocera Wireless Corp. (KWC) to acquire Kyocera Wireless (India) Pvt. Ltd., its Indian subsidiary. The acquisition is subject to legal and statutory requirements, as well as certain closing conditions.

Lupin Ltd. gained 0.42%. Lupin acquired the product from QscLent Pharmaceuticals on September 25, 2009, under the procedures of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court- Antara recorded net sales of US $ 70 million for 2008 (Source: IMS Dec 2008). Lupin paid S 38.61 million for the product and related assets inclusive of inventory.

L&T Ltd reported rise of 0.11% after company said that its unit got a multi million-dollar contract from Germany''s Infineon Technologies AG.

Religare Technova closed higher by 1.56%. The company announced the launch of its Product Portal - RTGSLive. This is in line with the company’s strategy of introducing domain specific solutions. The portal is a touch-point for organizations looking for such specialized solutions and will help them in gathering of information as well as quicken the decision making process by enabling faster purchase. The site provides a high level view of each product, which is displayed for the customers benefit to allow better understanding and faster decision making. RTGSlive.com also showcases the strengths of the technology organization and the breadth of its domain expertise and product offering.