Post Session Commentary - Oct 21 2009

Indian market closed on negative note following weak cues from the global market. BSE Sensex falls below 17,000 in late trade but managed hold the level and finally ended below 17,050 level along with NSE Nifty closed below 5,100 level. Negative closing of Asian stocks and the lower trading in European markets hit the sentiments. Besides, weak US index futures also took beating on the bourses. Meanwhile, market slipped sharply during final trading hours backed by huge selling pressure emerged across the board.

The market opened on flat note with negative bias tracking unfavorable cues from the markets all over the world. The US stock market closed lower on Tuesday amid strengthening in dollar and some weak economic data that missed expectations. The better earnings results from Apple, Texas Instruments, Caterpillar, Pfizer and UnitedHealth failed to keep the investors from booking profits. The Housing starts for September came in at an annualized rate of 590,000, which is below the rate of 610,000 units that was widely expected. Further, Indian benchmark indices continued to trade choppy, as the investors were hesitant to take any fresh long positions and were looking to exit stocks at current high levels. Stocks tried to improve during early afternoon trade but the recovery was short lived and market again reported fall. During final trading hours, market slipped piercingly due to huge sell off, as investors were worried on negative trading in European markets. From the sectoral front, most of the selling was seen in Bank, Auto, FMCG, Metal and Pharma stocks. However, IT and Teck stocks were able to gain favour from the market.

Among the Sensex pack 24 stocks ended in red territory and 6 in green territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1564 stocks closed in red while 1178 stocks closed in green and 93 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex lower by 213.84 points or (1.24%) at 17,009.19 and NSE Nifty ended down by 50.85 points or (0.99%) at 5,063.60. BSE Small Caps closed with gains of 317.52 points at 7,800.39 and BSE Mid Caps closed with losses of 71.49 points at 6,854. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,248.69 and intraday low of 16,997.86.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Steel (3.96%), JP Associates (3.56%), SBI (3.24%), HDFC (3.07%), Herohonda Motors (2.90%), Tata Motors (2.86%), ITC Ltd (2.71%), Grasim Industries (2.67%), Maruti Suzuki (2.6%), ONGC Ltd (2.17%), HUL (2.16%), M&M Ltd (1.89%), HDFC Bank (1.67%), ICICI Bank (1.62%), ACC Ltd (1.49%) and Sterlite Industries (1.43%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are TCS Ltd (1.94%), Tata Power (1.57%), Bharti Airtel (1.22%), DLF Ltd (0.77%), Wipro Ltd (0.41%) and NTPC Ltd (0.07%).

Shortly, the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate will be replaced with a base rate. The plan will come into effect once the Reserve Bank of India Working Group''s report on BPLR is executed. Besides, the rate will take in all cost elements, which can be identified and are common across borrowers. The Annual Policy 2009-10 had announced the creation of the group to review the BPLR system and suggest changes to make credit pricing more transparent.

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended lower. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Singapore''s Straits Times and Seoul Composite ended down by 13.87, 66.85, 3.45, 18.54 and 5.29 points at 3,070.59, 22,318.11, 10,333.39, 2,692.55 and 1,653.86 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading down. In Paris the CAC 40 is lower by 35.27 points at 3,836.18, in Frankfurt DAX index is trading down by 45.84 points at 5,765.93 and in London FTSE 100 is lower by 27.53 points at 5,215.87.

The BSE Auto index lost (2.36%) or 157.03 points 6,496.46, as Amtek Auto (6.17%), MRF Ltd (3.34%), Herohonda Motors (2.90%), Tata Motors (2.86%) and Maruti Suzuki (2.60%) ended in red .

The BSE FMCG index closed down by (2.06%) or 57.15 points at 2,715.97. Losers are Dabur India (3.10%), ITC Ltd (2.71%), United Spr (2.29%), HUL (2.16%) and Tata Tea Ltd (1.35%).

The BSE Bank index dropped by (2%) or 210.03 points at 10,309.98. Main losers are Bank of Baroda (4.46%), Yes Bank (3.82%), IDBI Bank (3.38%), Indian Overseas Bank (3.31%), and Bank of India (2.99%).

The Metal index ended down by (1.69%) or 269.44 points at 15,642, as LME, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, slides 0.96% overnights. Losers are Sesa Goa Ltd (7.91%), Tata Steel (3.96%), Welspan Guajrat SR (2.26%), Steel Authority (2.13%) and Ispat Industries (2.08%).

The BSE Pharma index ended lower by (1.38%) or 61.08 at 4,377.28. Main losers are Divi’s Lab (5.37%), Dishman Pharma (4.82%), Aurobindo Pharma (4.46%), Piramal Health (4.24%) and Lupin Ltd (2.65%).

The BSE Realty index increased by (0.26%) or 12.37 points at 4,741.82 on recent reports that demand for residential projects in major cities is picking up on lower home loan rates. Gainers are Ansal Infra (3.14%), Housing Dev (1.65%), Indiabull Real (0.77%) and DLF Ltd (0.71%).

AREVA T&D India closed lower by 1.78%. The company has signed an EPC" alliance agreement worth approximately Rs.9000 MINR with Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co. Ltd (MSETCL), for the turnkey design and construction of 220 kV and 132 kV substations.

HCL Technologies Ltd. ended higher by 3.95%. The company announced today a collaboration with Microsoft to provide a highly cost-effective and user-friendly retail banking solution to help banks in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

Tech Mahindra Ltd lost 0.05% despite net profit spurted 56.37% to Rs. 210.64 crore on 4.67% rise in net sales to Rs. 1,109.84 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q1 June 2009.

Hindustan Construction Company slipped 4.02% despite the company bagged a water supply project worth Rs. 167.67 crore from Gujarat Water Infrastructure, a Gujarat state government undertaking.

Sterlite Technologies Ltd gained 2.06% as the company has emerged as the lowest bidder for the country’s first private power transmission project.

Ajanta Pharma Ltd zoomed 9.99% after the company said its board will meet on 29 Oct’09 to consider buyback of its own equity shares.

Bank of India Ltd slipped 2.99% after the Reserve Bank of India, barred further buying in the state-run bank’s shares by the foreign institutional investors.

Tata Motors lost 2.86%. The company has entered into an understanding with the Andhra Bank for financing its range of commercial vehicles to provide an added facility of finance to its customers.