Post Session Commentary - Oct 16 2009

Domestic market bounced back from opening losses to close higher, backed by firm cues from European markets. In addition, firm US index futures also added to the positive sentiments. Key benchmark indices witnessed upswing despite negative cues from Asian stocks. Market gained ground as strong buying emerged in banking and realty stocks. Meanwhile, investors were a bit cautious ahead of a long weekend. The market will remain close on Monday, 19 October 2009 on account of Diwali. However, a special one hour Muhurat trading session will be held tomorrow, 17 October 2009, between 18:15 to 19:15 IST. BSE Sensex ended above 17,300 level along with NSE Nifty closed above 5,100 level.

The market opened on flat note on the back of mixed cues from the markets all over the world. Asian stocks are mixed, as traders awaited further cues from corporate quarterly earnings. Besides, the US stock market ended up on Thursday with jump in the price of oil that lifted energy companies and offset weakness in bank shares. The pick up during final trading hours was led by the energy sector, which settled with a 2.0% gain. However, Indian benchmark indices gathered momentum soon after start and continued to trade on positive terrain, as buying activity emerged in key stocks. Further, stocks were continual to extend gains on strong response to the initial public offer of Indiabulls Power. Finally, market ended up tracking positive European stocks. From the sectoral front, most of the buying was seen in Realty, Bank, Oil & Gas, Power, PSU and Capital Goods stocks. Broader market indices also followed the same trend. However, Auto, Metal, FMCG and IT stocks remained under pressure.

Among the Sensex pack 15 stocks ended in green territory and 15 in red territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1506 stocks closed in green while 1264 stocks closed in red and 95 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex higher by 127.62 points or (0.74%) at 17,322.82 and NSE Nifty ended up by 33.30 points or (0.65%) at 5,142.15. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains 69.26 and 36.87 points at 6,908.49 and 7,667 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,347.85 and intraday low of 17,126.55.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are DLF Ltd (6.30%), SBI (5.30%), JP Associates (3.41%), Tata Power (3.39%), TCS Ltd (2.84%), ICICI Bank (2.41%), RCom (2.09%), Reliance (2.08%), HDFC (1.92%), Reliance (2.08%), HDFC (1.92%), Reliance Infra (1.53%), Tata Motors (1.04%) and BHEL (0.90%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Sterlite Industries (5.44%), M&M Ltd (2.28%), Tata Steel (1.44%), ITC Ltd (1.43%), ACC Ltd (1.29%), Infosys Tech (1.16%), NTPC Ltd (1.08%), ONGC Ltd (0.89%), HUL (0.85%) and Maruti Suzuki (0.66%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended lower. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Singapore''s Straits and Seoul Composite ended lower by 3.16, 69.18, 4.03 and 18.63 points at 2,976.63, 21,29.9, 2,708.12 and 1,640.36 respectively. However, Nikkei 225 gained 18.91 points at 10,257.56.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading up. In Paris the CAC 40 is higher 14.20 points at 3,898.03, whereas in Frankfurt DAX index is trading up 40 points at 5,870.77 and in London FTSE 100 is higher by 28.14 points at 5,251.09.

The BSE Realty index increased by (3.36%) or 152.24 points at 4,689.05. Gainers are DLF Ltd (6.30%), Parsvnath (4.74%), Ackruti (4.19%), Housing Dev (4.15%) and Penland Ltd (3.56%).

The BSE Bank index gained (2.29%) or 237.16 points 10,589.91. Gainers are Karnataka Bank (9.18%), Indus Ind Bank (7.38%), Oriental Bank (6.86%), Union Bank (6.53%) and Allahabad Bank (3.97%).

The BSE Oil & Gas index advanced by (1.19%) or 125.37 points at 210,661.59, as Crude oil futures saw a considerable spike this session following bullish inventory data. crude oil futures rose 3.2% to close at $77.58 per barrel. Gainers are Cairn Ind (4.18%), Essar Oil Ltd (3.95%), Reliance (2.08%) and RNRL (0.70%).

The BSE Power index closed higher by (0.89%) or 28.31 points at 3,217.99. Gainers are Lanco Infra (6.46%), GVK Power (4.46%), Tata Power (3.39%), Crompton Greaves (2.44%) and Reliance Infra (1.53%).

The BSE Auto index ended lower by (1.26%) or 84.24 6,618.28. Main losers are Bajaj Auto (4.83%), Escorts Ltd (3.97%), Cummins Indi (2.52%), M&M Ltd (2.28%) and Apollo Tyre (1.92%).

The Metal index ended down by (1.10%) or 174.38 points at 15,682.05, as Sterlite Industries (5.44%), Tata Steel (1.44%), Gujarat Nre C (1.41%), Jindal steel (1.08%) and Jai Corp Ltd (0.16%) ended in red.

Merck Ltd zoomed 19.99% after net profit increased significantly 48.72% to Rs. 26.16 crore in Q3 September 2009 over Q3 September 2008.

CMC Ltd spurted 1.94% to Rs. 1,228.05 on reporting 17.22% growth in net profit to Rs. 31.37 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q1 June 2009.

Hindalco is up by 0.63%. The company''s board has increased the size of fund-raising plan by Rs 500 crore to Rs 2,900 crore, to be raised through the issue of securities to qualified institutional buyers. The board of directors has approved raising of long-term finance up to Rs 2,900 crore instead of earlier approval of Rs 2,400 crore.

Central Bank of India advanced by 3.41%. The bank has decided to change its trusteeship firm into a non-banking finance company (NBFC). Besides, the bank is also in talks with Aviva Life Insurance among others to set up an insurance distribution firm.

Hindustan Zinc Ltd gained 0.01% after the company hiked both zinc and lead price to match global rates.

Jaiprakash Hydro-Power Ltd slipped 2.23% after net profit took a slide of 6.64% to Rs. 62.41 crore on 1.21% fall in total income to Rs. 114.15 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008.

Sterlite Industries India Ltd plunged 5.44% on equity dilution concerns after the company raised $500 million in convertible notes.

Bank of India lost 1.38%. The bank is planning to expand the branchless banking to 200 locations by the end of December. The bank has implemented the model to take the service to new areas.