Post Session Commentary - Sep 30 2009

Indian market extended its initial gains to close sharply higher on sustained buying over the ground led by hopes that quarterly earnings would top expectations. The BSE Sensex hit its highest level in more than 16 months, as broke 17,000 level during the trading and ended above 17,100 level. Besides, NSE Nifty also touched its highest level in more than 16 months and closed above 5,050 mark. Stocks hit fresh high on rise in the index of six core sector industries that stood at 255.3 in August 2009, with a growth of 7.1% as compared to a growth of 2.1% in August 2008. The index of six sectors has a combined weight of 26.7% in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Further, stocks raised also on positive European markets and higher US index futures. However, volume on the exchange was low, as investors opted to remain on sidelines on shortened trading week. The market will remain close on Friday, 2 October 2009, on account of Gandhi Jayanti.

The market opened marginally higher backed by mixed cues from the global markets. Asian stocks today opened in green whereas the US stock market closed lower on Tuesday. There was short of leadership in all of the sectors on account of some poor consumer confidence data for September that recorded fall for the month of August. Further, Indian benchmark indices gained ground soon after start on fresh buying interest across the indices. Stocks continued to extend gains on optimism about the second quarter results after a surge in the advance tax collections to post a positive growth in second quarter after reporting a negative growth in the first quarter. Finally, market ended with strong gains on positive sentiments led by firm European markets. From the sectoral front huge buying was witnessed in Bank, Auto, Metal, Capital Good, Realty, IT and PSU stocks. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks also followed the same trend. However, FMCG and Consumer Durable stocks witnessed most of the selling from these baskets.

Among the Sensex pack 26 stocks ended in green territory and 4 in red territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1598 stocks closed in green while 1183 stocks closed in red and 77 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 273.93 or (1.63%) points at 17,126.84 and NSE Nifty ended up by 77.10 points or (1.54%) at 5,083.95. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 59.36 and 70.45 points at 6,324.16 and 7,590.04 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,142.52 and intraday low of 16,868.46.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are SBI (5.01%), ICICI Bank (4.63%), Maruti Suzuki (3.70%), M&M Ltd (3.46%), Sterlite Industries (3.46%), Wipro Ltd (3.30%), RCom (2.75%), DLF Ltd (2.65%), BHEL (2.30%), L&T Ltd (2.15%), HDFC Bank (2.05%), Reliance (1.63%), Hindalco (1.58%) and TCS Ltd (1.47%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are ONGC Ltd (1.25%), ITC Ltd (1.07%), Grasim Industries (0.73%) and Bharti Airtel (0.07%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended mixed. Shanghai Composite, Nikkei 225 and Singapore''s Straits ended higher by 24.88, 33.03 and 9.26 points at 2,779.43, 10,133.23 and 2,72.57 respectively. However, Hang Seng and Seoul Composite lost 57.92 and 16.91 points at 20,955.25 and 2,673.14 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading up. In Paris the CAC 40 is higher 22.38 points at 3,836.48, in Frankfurt DAX index is trading up 18.66 points at 5,732.18 and in London FTSE 100 is trading higher by 26.01 points at 5,185.73.

The BSE Bank index ended higher by (3.69%) or 350.67 points at 9,855.60 after Finance secretary Ashok Chawla said on Tuesday that there is a need to look at consolidation of banks and that government is not discouraging Indian banks from making overseas acquisitions. Main gainers are Axis Bank (6.09%), Oriental Bank (5.03%), SBI (5.01%), Indian Overseas Bank (4.97%) and ICICI Bank (4.63%).

The BSE Auto index gained (2.13%) or 138.78 points 6,664.25. Gainers are Escorts Ltd (7.03%), Bajaj Auto (4.66%), Maruti Suzuki (3.70%), M&M Ltd (3.46%) and Exide Industries (2.62%).

The BSE Capital Goods index closed higher by (1.74%) or 235.28 points at 13,757.19. Gainers are Aiaengineer (9.78%), Bharat Elect (7.52%), Elecon Eng C (3.94%), Jyoti Struct (2.81%) and BHEL (2.30%).

The BSE Metal index advanced by (1.55%) or 215.8 points at 14,176.62 as LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange gained 0.25% on Tuesday. Gainers are Jindal Saw (5.40%), Jai Corp Ltd (3.76%), Sterlite Industries (3.46%), JSW Steel (1.60%) and Hindalco (1.58%).

The BSE Realty index increased by (1.43%) or 63.6 points at 4,509.66. Gainers are Parsvnath (16.02%), Omaxe Ltd (8.11%), Anant Raj (4.52%), Orbit Co (4.11%) and Penland Ltd (3.19%).

The BSE FMCG index ended down by (0.42%) or 10.79 points at 2,575.82, as Amrico Ltd (2.19%), Tata Tea Ltd (1.88%), Dabur India (1.83%), ITC Ltd (1.07%) and Colgate Palm (0.55%) ended in red.

Tata Consultancy Services ended higher by 1.47%. The company announced that it has been chosen by Singapore''s People''s Association, a statutory board under the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, to provide annual Application Management Services (AMS) for two years in a multi-million dollar deal.

Opto Circuits Ltd. closed up by 0.73%. The company''s wholly-owned US-based subsidiary, Criticare Systems Inc. (CSI), has forged a strategic multi-year OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) contract with another US company to privately label its anesthesia monitor for the signed partner.

HCC gained 0.73%. The company has signed a MoU with the international engineering and project management company AMEC pic (AMEC) to jointly explore the application of consulting and EPC services for the establishment of nuclear power plants in India.

MindTree Ltd dropped by 0.37%. The global IT Solutions company, today introduced its new Multi-Channel Commerce Solutions, designed to help retailers adopt a more customer-centric strategy.

Edserv Softsystems Ltd gained 3.18%. The companyhas informed that EdServ has acquired 2tion.com, an online education portal for school and college tuition services.

Unity Infraprojects increased by 0.38%. The company has bagged a Rs. 54.56 crore project from Amanora Park Town, Hadaspur, Pune where the project is likely to be finished in 29 months and includes construction of 6 towers, RCC works and gypsum finish.

Wockhardt closed with gains of 7.57%. The company has received tentative approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (US FDA) for marketing the 0.4mg capsules of Tamsulosin Hydrochloride, which is used for treating Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH or non-cancerous enlargement of prostate).