Post Session Commentary - Oct 5 2009

Indian market today dived into red to close with huge losses along with other Asian counterparts. Profit booking together with weaker-than-expected US jobs report weighed on sentiments. The firm trading in US index futures along with positive European markets were unable to bring any respite. Moreover, investors priced in the weakness in global markets on Friday, 2nd October 2009, when the Indian market was closed for a public holiday. BSE Sensex ended above 16,900 level and NSE Nifty closed around 5,000 level.

The market opened below its last closing figure mirroring unfavorable cues from global markets. The US stock market reported loss for fourth straight session and ended lower on Friday, on disappointing job data. Decline in factory orders and weak jobs data gave more evidence that the economic recovery would be less healthy than expected. Further, domestic bourses continued to southbound on huge selling pressure over the ground. Profit taking after a run-up last week, also contributed to hit the investors’ sentiments. During last trading hours, market lost further ground to widen its losses led by all round selling. From the sectoral front, Reality, Teck, Metal, Bank, Auto, PSU and Oil & Gas stocks observed most of the selling from these baskets. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks also stayed out of favor. However, FMCG stocks remained in limelight as contributed most of the buying.

Among the Sensex pack 23 stocks ended in red territory and 7 in red territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1191 stocks closed in red while 779 stocks closed in green and 63 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 268.14 points or (1.56%) at 16,866.41 and NSE Nifty ended down 80.20 by points or (1.58%) at 5,003.20. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 106.22 and 161.18 points at 6,195.79 and 7,426 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,062.01 and intraday low of 16,835.80.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Bharti Airtel (8.05%), Grasim Industries (7.10%), Hindalco (6.75%), RCom (5.60%), DLF Ltd (3.95%), Sterlite Industries (3.59%), SBI (3.53%), Tata Motors (3.28%), MAruti Suzuki (3.17%), JP Associates (3.14%), TCS Ltd (2.61%), Tata Steel (2.53%), Reliance (1.54%), ICIIC Bank (1.48%), ACC Ltd (1.39%), Tata Power (1.05%) and ONGC Ltd (0.96%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are ITC Ltd (2.58%), Sun Pharma (2.29%), Reliance Infra (1.26%), HUL (0.64%), M&M Ltd (0.58%), Herohonda Motors (0.30%) and Wipro Ltd (0.26%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended mostly lower. Nikkei 225, Singapore''s Straits and Seoul Composite ended lower by 57.38, 20.80 and 37.73 points at 9,674.49, 2,583.73 and 1,606.9 respectively. However, Hang Seng gained 53.58 points at 20,429.07. Meanwhile, markets in China have been closed since 1 October 2009 for National day and Autumn festival celebrations. Trading will resume on 9 October 2009.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in green. In Paris the CAC 40 is higher 4.69 points at 3,654.59, in Frankfurt DAX index is trading up 9.48 points at 5,477.38 and in London FTSE 100 is trading higher by 5.13 points at 4,993.83.

The BSE Realty index decreased by (3.53%) or 159.15 points at 4,348.49 after recent gains in previous trading session. Losers are Orbit Co (5%), Parsvnath (4.95%), Unitech Ltd (4.88%), DLF Ltd (3.95%) and Anant Raj (3.38%).

The BSE Teck index dropped by (2.67%) or 88.17 points at 3,219.94. Losers are Bharti Airtel (8.05%), Balaji Tele (5.79%), Tata Teleserv (5.73%), RCom (5.60%) and HT Media (5.29%).

The BSE Metal index ended lower by (2.48%) or 352.18 points at 13,850.42. Main losers are Hindalco (6.75%), Jindal Saw (5.68%), Ispat Industries (4.45%), SAIL (4.06%) and Gujarat NRE C (3.91%).

The BSE Bank index ended down by (2.01%) or 199.68 points at 9,732.11, as Federal Bank 4.74%), Yes Bank (4.11%), Axis Bank (3.91%), SBI (3.53%) and Kotak Bank (3.17%) ended in red.

The BSE Auto index lost (1.76%) or 116.33 points 6,486.86 despite healthy monthly sales data. Losers are Escorts Ltd (6.61%), Bharat Forge (4.83%), Exide Industries (4.40%), Apollo Tyre (3.64%) and Tata Motors (3.28%).

The BSE FMCG index closed higher by (1.47%) or 38.10 points at 2,630.59. Gainers are ITC Ltd (2.58%), Nestle Ltd (2.33%), Colgate Palm (1.13%) and HUL (0.64%).

Grasim Industries ended lower by 7.10%. The company said that it will transfer its cement business to its unlisted unit Samruddhi Cement. This will eventually be merged into Ultratech Cement. However, on conclusion of the demerger, Grasim would hold 65% in Samruddhi while Grasim shareholders would hold the balance 35% and Grasim Cement''s grey cement and RMC businesses would be transferred to Samruddhi post-demerger.

ACC slipped 1.39% after the company announced that sales of cement fell 2.4% last month. The company sold 1.63mn tons in the month of September, compared with 1.67mn tons a year earlier.

Ashok Leyland Ltd fell 2.87% after total sales decreased 11.87% to 5,452 units in September 2009 over September 2008.

MIC Electronics surged 4.28%. The company''s LED based solar lanterns endorsed at Indo-US Energy Partnership Summit 2009 at Washington DC, USA.

Videocon Industries Ltd went up by 1.72% after the company said it will buy an equity stake in loss-making Finnish electronics firm Elcoteq.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd gained 1.26% on reports the firm may sell shares in its power distribution and metro project units to the public and strategic partners to unlock value.

Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd lost 0.48%. The firm said it would issue 2.47 crore shares at Rs. 32 per share on a rights basis, at a huge discount of 62.92% over the ruling market price.

AREVA dropped 0.50%. the company’s Transmission and Distribution Division (T&D), AREVA T&D India Ltd has won a prestigious contract for the modernization of Channel Airport, from Pomerleau International - Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited.