Post Session Commentary - Sep 3 2009

Domestic market renounced all its’ gains to conclude its sea-saw movement on negative note after a high volatile session. The benchmark indices were on upbeat mood during early and afternoon trade on firm cues from Asian markets. In addition, positive US index futures also supported the sentiments. However, market exhibited volatility and pared gains during final trading hours on profit booking. Fluctuation in European stocks also added to instability, ahead of the European Central Bank’s meeting on interest rates. Meanwhile, India’s Inflation remained in negative for the 12th successive week, as it stood at -0.21% for the week ended 22nd Aug 2009, as compared to -0.95% for the previous week 15th August 2009. The BSE Sensex ended around 15,400 level and NSE Nifty closed below 4,600 mark.

The market opened significantly higher tracking positive cues from the Chinese markets. However, the US stock markets closed lower on Wednesday making a fourth straight day fall on the back of some disappointing economic data. Market struggled to hold on to even the smallest gains and traded in a relatively narrow range with low volume. ADP Employment Change Report for August revealed more job losses than what it was expected and factory orders for July went up, but were below expectation. Meanwhile, Indian benchmark indices turned volatile and slipped into red soon after start. However, market managed to gain ground further on some buying in key stocks and continued to trade in range bound manner. During last trading hours, market once again slipped into red and ended the day on negative note. From the sectoral front, Oil & Gas, Pharma, Capital Goods, Auto, Power and FMCG stocks contributed to most of the selling pressure. However, Consumer Durable, Metal and IT stocks were in limelight as witnessed most of the buying from these baskets. BSE Midcap and Smallcap stocks also observed buying during the trading.

Among the Sensex pack 21 stocks ended in red territory, 8 in green territory and 1 remained unchanged. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1402 stocks closed in red while 1350 stocks closed in green and 93 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 69.13 points at 15,398.33 and NSE Nifty ended down by 14.80 points at 4,593.55. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 12.77 and 48.80 points at 5,770.80 and 6,917.82 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,598.18 and intraday low of 15,356.72.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Reliance (2.01%), M&M Ltd (1.65%), Bharti Airtel (1.77%), Tata Motors (1.62%), Tata Power (1.34%), ONGC Ltd (1.24%), L&T Ltd (1.14%), ACC Ltd (1.10%), Hindalco (0.92%), Herohonda Motors (0.77%), NTPC Ltd (0.72%) and Wipro Ltd (0.71%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are RCom (5.31%), HUL (2.01%), Sterlite Industries (1.64%), Infosys Tech (1.06%), Tata Steel (1%), SBI (0.68%) and DLF Ltd (0.25%).

Inflation remained in negative for the 12th successive week, as Inflation for the week ended 22nd Aug 2009, stood at -0.21% as compared to -0.95% for the previous week 15th August 2009 and 12.76% during the corresponding week of the previous year. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for ''All Commodities'' for the week ended August 22, 2009 rose by 0.8% to 240.7 from 238.8 for the previous week. However, the wholesale price index for all commodities, used to measure the inflation, was up 0.8% at 240.7 on a week-on-week basis. The primary articles index was 0.7% higher and the prices of manufacturing products also rose 0.5%. Besides, the prices of fuels also jumped 1.5% on a week-on-week basis.

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended higher as Chinese stocks jumped sharply higher and helped offset worries that rising U.S. job losses will wreck the global economic recovery. Hang Seng, Nikkei 22, Singapore''s Straits Times Index and Seoul Composite closed down by 350.30, 249.60, 26.46 and 9.9 points at 19,522, 10,280.46, 2,569.93 and 1,613.16 respectively. However, Shanghai Composite gained 31.25 points at 2,714.94.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading mixed before the European Central Bank’s meeting on interest rates. In Frankfurt, DAX index is trading up by 1.93 points at 5,321.77 and in London FTSE 100 is trading down 0.42 points at 4,817.13.

The BSE Oil & Gas index closed lower by (1.12%) or 108.87 points at 9,575.10. Losers are Reliance (2.01%), Reliance Pet (1.64%), ONGC Ltd (1.24%), RNRL (1.10%) and Essar Oil Ltd (0.78%).

The BSE Pharma index lost (0.73%) or 28.13 points at 3,829.64. Losers are Aurobindo Pharma (2.75%), Ranbaxy Lab (2.31%), Cipla Ltd (1.87%), Dr Reddy’s Lab (1.85%) and Dishman Pharma (1.44%).

The BSE Capital Goods index dropped by (0.58%) or 73.85 points at 12,698.22. Losers are BEML Ltd (2.70%), Siemens Ltd (1.56%), Gammon Indi (1.54%), L&T Ltd (1.14%) and Bharat Bijli (1.13%).

The BSE Auto index decreased by (0.53%) or 31.64 points 5,908.94. Losers are MRF Ltd (2.16%), M&M Ltd (1.95%), Tata Motors (1.62%), Exide Indus (1.04%) and Herohonda Motors (0.77%).

The BSE Consumer Durable index gained by (0.75%) or 24.52 points at 3,280.99 as Rajesh Export (8.30%), Videocn Ind (0.96%), Titan Ind (0.16%) and Gitnajali GE (0.04%) ended in green.

The BSE Metal index closed up by (0.98%) or 41.08 points at 4,231.3. Main gainers are Aptech Ltd (6.67%), Oracle Fin (5.21%), HCL Tech (3.65%), Rolta Ind (1.31%) and TCS Ltd (1.19%).

Gwalior Chemical Industries Ltd plunged 3.27% after Morgan Stanley Mauritius Company sold a total of 3.89 lakh shares of the company on the BSE and the NSE yesterday.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) dropped marginally by 0.21%. The company is planning to invest nearly Rs 2,000 crore to set up a 250 Mw solar photovoltaic production facility for processing silicon wafers, solar cells and PV modules in a joint venture with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The stock is now trading higher by (0.37%) at Rs.2,208.90.

Golden Tobacco Ltd zoomed 4.96% on reports the company is exploring the possibility of signing an agreement with Godrej Properties for co-development of a property located in the Mumbai suburbs.

MTNL gained 0.21% on reports the company has submitted an expression of interest to buy a 75% stake in Nigerian Telecommunications.

Rama Paper Mills Ltd jumped 9.97% after the company started commercial production at one of its unit, which has raised the production capacity to 60,000 tons per annum (TPA) from 44,000 TPA.

Bajaj Auto Ltd surged 3.04% after the company reported a 6% rise in total vehicle sales to 2.13 lakh units in Aug’09 over Aug’08.