Post Market Review - Aug 19 2010

Benchmark indices surged more than a percent for the second consecutive day and closed at a new intermediate high. Sensex closed at 18454, up 198 points while Nifty gained 61 points to settle at 5540, the highest close after 18th January 2008. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.9% and 0.8% respectively. Food inflation for the week ended August 7 came in at 10.35% versus 11.40% for the week ago while Primary Article inflation dipped to 14.85% as against 15.66%. Fuel inflation stood at 12.57% versus 12.66%. Cement stocks were on fire on the back of reports of price hike while Unitech slipped on account of exclusion from the MSCI India index. European markets were up about half a percent while US stock indices future too were higher by similar percentage ahead of initial jobless claims and leading indicator data.



BSE Bankex and FMCG indices gained the most among the sectoral indices, putting on 1.9% and 1.6% respectively while Realty and PSU indices lost 0.7% and 0.05% respectively. Ambuja Cement and ACC surged 10.7% and 5.3% respectively, becoming the top gainers among the Nifty stocks while Unitech and ONGC were down the most, shedding 1.5% and 1.4% respectively. BSE advance-decline ratio stood at 1.3:1.