Dead Presidents! - India Equity Research: Daily Market Outlook

Bulls and bears cannot arrive at a conclusion though both appear to be tired. How else will you explain the sharp swing in the last two days? Technically, 4600 could prove to be a major support for the Nifty. Again there is nothing sacrosanct as further falls cannot be ruled out. On the upside, the bulls could face stiff resistance at around 4720-4830. Over the long-term, things should continue to look up as the recovery will meet with periodic bumps.

We expect a flat to slightly lower start as Asian markets are in the red and US stocks could not hold on to intra-day gains. Wild gyrations are a given as the market consolidates after hitting multi-month highs last month. Stay highly alert as the near-term outlook remains murky and volatility is likely to persist for a while.

A couple of labor market reports signal that the pace of layoffs in the US is slowing. All eyes are on Friday’s monthly numbers. Cisco results have surpassed consensus estimates. The Bank of England (BOE) and ECB will announce their latest policy decisions later today.

Earnings from Societe Generale, Bank of Ireland and Adidas were also cheered by investors. Meanwhile, US lawmakers passed a bill extending unemployment benefits by up to 20 weeks. The legislation also extends homebuyer tax credit into next year.

Markets, be they stocks, emerging markets or commodities, have rallied too far, too fast because the global economy will experience an anemic recovery rather than the hoped-for V-shaped recovery, New York University economist Nouriel Roubini said on Wednesday.

But, Jim Rogers, the investor who predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999, said that Roubini is wrong about the threat of bubbles in gold and emerging-market stocks. “What bubble?” Rogers said. “It’s clear Mr. Roubini hasn’t done his homework, yet again.”

Investors worldwide are fueling “huge” bubbles that may spark another financial crisis by borrowing dollars in “the mother of all carry trades,” Roubini said. Many commodities are still down from record highs and equity markets aren’t on the brink of collapse, Rogers, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, countered.

Separately, Arnab Das of Roubini Global Economics said that emerging markets are poised to extend their biggest rally in a decade as investors borrow dollars to buy stocks, bonds and currencies in the world’s fastest growing economies.

FIIs were net buyers in the cash segment on Wednesday at Rs2.34bn on a provisional basis. The local funds were net buyers of Rs5.57bn, according to figures published on the NSE's web site. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net buyers at Rs26.39bn. On Tuesday, the foreign funds were net buyers of Rs3bn in the cash segment. FIIs' net investments in Indian stocks this year is above $14bn.

US stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, giving up bigger gains after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and said that it will keep them low for an extended period.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 30 points, or 0.3%, to 9,802.14. The Dow had gained as much as 156 points in the afternoon, but couldn't sustain those gains through the close. The S&P 500 closed nearly flat at 1,046.50, and the Nasdaq Composite index lost 2 points, or 0.1%, to 2,055.52.

Since hitting a 2009 closing high of 1097.91 on Oct. 19, the S&P 500 has lost just short of 5% as of Wednesday's close. That retreat followed a massive rally that saw the broad index gain 63% after bouncing off a 12-year low.

US stocks rose through the early afternoon as investors welcomed a pair of labor market reports that signaled the pace of layoffs is slowing. But markets were volatile in the afternoon, cutting gains after the Fed announcement, recharging the advance in the late afternoon, and then abandoning most of the gains by the close. The sentiment turned lower on a bearish banking call by influential analyst Meredith Whitney and the S&P 500's inability to hang on above a key technical level.

The Fed policymakers opted to hold interest rates steady at historic lows near zero, as expected, following its two-day policy meeting. In its closely watched statement, the bankers said economic activity is likely to remain weak for some time.

Payroll services firm ADP said Wednesday that employers in the private sector cut 203,000 jobs from their payrolls in October after cutting 227,000 in September. A consensus of economists expected 198,000 job cuts.

A separate report, from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, showed the number of planned layoffs slowed to 55,679 in October, down 16% from September.

In other economic news, the Institute for Supply Management's reading on the services sector of the economy fell to 50.6 in October from 50.9 in September. Economists thought it would rise to 51.5.

In company news, Time Warner reported weaker quarterly sales and earnings that topped forecasts. The company also boosted its full-year 2009 forecast and said that its outlook has improved, although it expects to take a $100 million charge in the quarter as it restructures its Time Inc. division.

Dow component Kraft Foods reported weaker quarterly earnings that topped estimates on weaker revenue that missed estimates. The company also boosted its 2009 earnings forecast and cut its revenue outlook. Shares fell 3%.

Drugmaker Merck rallied after it said it expects annual earnings growth of nearly 10% until 2013.

Comcast reported higher quarterly earnings that topped forecasts.

The dollar fell versus the yen and gained against the euro.

US light crude oil for December delivery rose cents 80 cents to settle at $80.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for December delivery climbed $2.40 to settle at $1,087.30 an ounce and hit an intraday record high of $1,098.50 an ounce in electronic trading.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.49% from 3.47% on Tuesday.

After the close, Cisco Systems reported weaker quarterly earnings and revenue that beat estimates. Cisco CEO John Chambers said current-quarter revenue would top estimates and that business conditions had bottomed at least six months ago. Cisco shares gained 4% in extended-hours trading.

European shares advanced, led by the mining sector and pushed up shares in Societe Generale, Bank of Ireland, Adidas and Marks & Spencer in the wake of forecast-beating results. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index rose 1.8% to close at 239.13, as miners advanced strongly after gold futures surged to a record and other metal futures also gained ground. A weak dollar and India's recent purchase of bullion continued to whet investors' appetite for the precious metal.

Germany's DAX index rose 1.7% to settle at 5,444.23, the French CAC-40 index gained 2.4% to end at 3,670.33 and the UK's FTSE 100 index climbed 1.4% to finish at 5,107.89.

After suffering badly for the past seven trading sessions, the bulls finally managed to muster up courage to stage a strong rebound. Today’s sharp turnaround erased all of Tuesday’s losses, which were triggered in reaction to a few adverse events abroad. But, thankfully the recent run of decline was arrested after the US market did fairly well overnight.

Reliance Industries the index bellwether bounced back from its 200 DMA surging over 5%. The Supreme Court will hear the gas dispute case afresh as judgea withdrew from the judge panel. The Supreme Court will appoint a newpanel of judges to hear the case.

High beta stocks which were badly battered on Tuesday bounced back strongly and were in demand through the day. The realty stocks and the Metals stocks were among the major gainers. Even the telecom stocks attracted buying interest.

On Wednesday, the BSE Sensex surged 507 points to end at 15,912 after touching a high of 15,929 and a low of 15,487. The index opened at 15,487 against the previous close of 15,404. The NSE Nifty advanced 146 points to shut shop at 4,710.

In Asia, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong advanced by 1.7% on the other hand, the Nikkei in Japan gained 0.5%, Australia's S&P/ASX ended higher by 0.2% and Shanghai SE Composite was up 1.7%.

In Europe, stocks were in the green. The FTSE in the UK was up 0.7%, The DAX in Germany was up 1.5% and the CAC 40 index in France gained 1.3%.

Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the Realty index was the top gainer, surging 9.7%, followed by the Metal index that was up 5.3% and the BSE IT index was up 4%. Even, the BSE Mid-Cap index gained 3.5% and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 2.1%.

Among the 30-components of Sensex, 27 stocks ended in the green and only Sun Pharma, Grasim and Tata Power ended in the negative terrain. JP Associate, DLF, Hindalco, Sterlite, Tata Steel and Reliance Industries were among the major gainers.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Indiabulls RealEstate, Educomp, Lic Housing, India Cement and Jet Airways. On the other hand, losers included Union Bank, Cummins India, Marico and Castrol India.

Sugar stocks climbed despite the UP government announced that it has banned import of raw sugar. Bajaj Hind and Balrampur Chini were up a day after a proposed M&A deal between the two companies fell through.

Shares of Bajaj Hindusthan have gained by 0.6% to Rs197, Balrampur Chini advanced 3% to Rs138, Renuka Sugars added 7% to Rs196 and Dhampur Sugar gained by 1.5% to Rs109.

JSW Steel announced that it has posted 34% increase in Crude steel production for October 2009. The break-up of production is as below.

Rolled Products out put was flat at 2.96 Lakh Tons in October 2009 as against 2.48 Lakh Tons posting a growth of 19%.

Long Rolled Products production was at 0.75 Lakh Tons in October 2009 as against 0.30 Lakh Tons a growth of 145%.

The production for the month of October'09 was lower sequentially due to unprecedented & incessant rains followed by floods in the southern part of India during the first week of the month disrupting the plant operations at Vijayanagar works. The Company's plant at Vijayanagar works is now operating normally.

Shares of JSW Steel surged by 6% to Rs721. The stock opened at Rs727 and made an intra-day high of Rs690 and a low of Rs652. Total traded volumes stood at 0.6mn shares.

Shares of TCS surged by over 3% to Rs625 after the company announced that it bagged a £150mn software implementation contract from Cardiff City Council, its first win from the local government space in UK.

TCS is chosen as a strategic IT partner for 15 years by the City Council of Cardiff in Britain. TCS will bring its global technical expertise and private sector commercial know-how to support a major change in the way the council’s technology infrastructure supports its day-to- day operations and facilitates improved service delivery to the citizens and communities of Cardiff.

Shares of Mahindra Satyam surged over 4% to Rs103 after the company announced its plans to collaborate with defence and security company Saab to develop its operations in India for the global defence and homeland security market.

The stock opened at Rs100 and made an intra-day high of Rs104 and a low of Rs100. Total traded volumes stood at 3.6mn shares.

Shares of M&M advanced by 3.5% to Rs927 after Domestic sales for the month of October 2009 stood at 17796 units, as compared to 14800 units for the same period last year, an increase of 20%. Combined September – October festive sales (domestic + exports) registered a record 36% growth at 35758 units, as compared to 26333 units for the same period last year.

Total tractor sales (domestic + exports) for October 2009 stand at 18772 units, as compared to 15465 units for the same period last year, an increase of 21%.

YTD domestic sales registered a 42% increase at 98407 units, as against 69343 units for the same period last year. The company’s YTD sales (domestic + exports) registered a 38% increase at 102639 units, as compared to 74358 units for the same period last year.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Gathering courage in the pit stop!

The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.

The bulls seem to be gathering courage and saying this is not the finish line but only a pit stop - a la F1 style. The bulls are taking a breather after a great run since early March. Some fatigue appears to have set in after the main indices hit multi-month highs.

Today, we may see a higher opening on the back of the late turnaround on Wall Street. Things were a bit mixed in Europe. Similar is the case for Asian markets this morning. Given that the market has been subdued for most of the week, there is a case for a technical or rather sentimental rebound. Overall, the trend may continue to be indecisive and sideways for a few more days.

The monthly jobs report to be issued in the US later today will be keenly followed. The US markets will enjoy an extended weekend due to the Labour Day holiday on Monday.

The current insipid trend may continue until we get the next trigger(s) which could swing the market either way. Among the key catalysts will be the quarterly earnings and the half-yearly policy review by the RBI. The direction of fund flows will continue to have a bearing, and so will the global factors.

The ECB has kept interest rates steady at a record low of 1%. The central bankers for the 16-nation euro zone are still skeptical about “green shoots” of recovery. ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet says that while it is premature to declare the financial crisis over, Europe's central bank has an exit strategy in place.

His US counterpart, Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner says that strengthening capital requirements is an essential part of a broader effort to modernise the regulatory framework so that the financial system is strong enough to withstand the failure of large, complex institutions.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) says that the worst global recession in several decades is likely to end sooner than expected, and could well be over, but the pace of economic activity will remain weak well into next year.

A two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers will get underway later today in London. The G20 leaders are laying the groundwork for a summit meeting later this month in Pittsburgh, where leaders will discuss measures to overhaul supervision of the global financial system.

Global investors have started to look ahead and are trying to match current valuations to future prospects. In many cases they have struggled to make the connection between multi-month high equity markets and a tentative global economic recovery.

As a result, going into September, global investors once again pulled out cash from Money Market Funds and put them into fixed income funds rather than equity funds. Overall, for the week ending Sept. 2, investors committed $5.06bn to EPFR Global-tracked fixed income funds and pulled $4.95bn out of equity funds.

US stocks rallied in later trade on Thursday, as investors snapped up bank and technology shares following a three-day selloff.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 64 points, or 0.7%, at 9,344.61. The S&P 500 index added 8 points, or 0.9%, to 1,003.24. The Nasdaq Composite index rose 16 points, or 0.8%, to 1,983.20.

US stocks were firm through most of the session as financials and other stocks that were hit earlier in the week bounced back. But the advance was limited by tepid back-to-school sales from the retailers and a troubling weekly jobless claims report, ahead of the bigger non-farm payrolls report on Friday.

The key fundamental change investors are looking for is continuous improvement in the jobs market, and the weekly jobless claims numbers weren't very positive.

The August report from the Labor Department is due before the start of trading on Friday. Employers are expected to have cut 225,000 jobs from their payrolls in August. Employers cut 247,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate, generated by a separate survey, is expected to have risen to 9.5% from 9.4% in July.

Also on Friday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner meets with the G-20 Finance ministers in London.

Trading volume is likely to be light and markets could be particularly volatile ahead of the three-day Labor Day holiday.

US stocks slid in the past three sessions, after ending last week at 2009 highs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both ended last week at levels not seen since just after the collapse of Lehman Bros. last September.

But this week has brought persistent selling on worries that the rally has run way ahead of times. That weakness has been compounded by lighter-than-usual trading ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Financial shares were charging ahead again. The KBW Bank index gained 2.5%.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both continued their recent surge. The stocks got an extra boost after the New York Federal Reserve Bank said it bought $3.779 billion of US agency debt, bringing its total to $122.4 billion in the last 9 months. The Fed has said it will buy $200 billion in debt from Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Loan Bank System as part of its efforts to keep mortgage rates low and help the economy recover.

A worse-than-expected jobless claims report and a mix of retail sales added to concerns about the health of the consumer. With consumer spending traditionally fueling two-thirds of economic growth, investors are looking for signs that spending could be picking up.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment last week stood at 570,000, a decline from the previous week's 574,000, but only because the previous week's numbers were revised higher. Economists were expecting 564,000 new claims.

Additionally, continuing claims, a measure of people who have been filing claims for a week or more, rose 92,000 to 6.23 million, topping forecasts for a rise to 6.12 million.

The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) services sector index for August rose to 48.4 from 46.4 previously. Economists thought it would rise to 48. Any number below 50 implies the sector is continuing to weaken.

Back-to-school sales for the nation's retailers were weaker than a year ago, but results still topped analysts' forecasts. August same-store sales, or sales at stores open a year or more, fell 2.9% versus a year ago. Analysts expected sales to drop 3.8%.

Discounters did the best, including clothing retailer Aeropostale which said sales rose 9% versus forecasts for a jump of 7.1%. Target said sales fell 2.9%, versus analysts' bets that sales would drop 5.1%. Costco and Limited Brands, which owns Bath & Body Works, reported weaker sales that surpassed forecasts.

Abercrombie & Fitch said sales plunged 29% versus a year ago.

Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma of Japan is buying US drugmaker Sepracor for about 2.6 billion, the companies said Thursday, confirming earlier reports.

US light crude oil for October delivery fell 9 cents to settle at $67.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices have been slipping since hitting a 10-month high just below $75 a barrel late last month.

Gold continues its advance, extending a three-month high, as risk averse investors turn to the precious metal following recent weakness on equity markets. COMEX gold for December delivery rose $19.20 to settle at $997.70 an ounce, inching closer to the psychologically significant $1,000 level.

Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.32% from 3.30% late on Wednesday.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and the Japanese yen.

European shares finished flat even as gold rose sharply and the ECB kept its key interest rate unchanged. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index pared earlier gains to virtually unchanged at 230.66. The index lost 2.9% over the previous three sessions.

The UK's FTSE 100 index fell 0.4% to 4,796.75, the German DAX index lost 0.4% to 5,301.42 and the French CAC-40 index slipped 0.6% to 3,553.51.

The BSE Sensex extended its losing streak to the fifth straight trading session led by the selling witnessed in the Oil & Gas, Pharma and the Capital Goods stocks. With stock valuations not cheap and uncertainty in global markets, markets are finding it tough to move higher. The Sensex has now lost nearly 3.3% or 524 points in the past five days.

Technically, The 20 Day moving average seems to be a strong support for the Nifty index which is placed at around the 4550-4560 levels. A drop below this levels would be

Inflation continued to remain in the negative terrain, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for 'All Commodities' for the week ended August 22, 2009 rose by 0.8% to 240.7 from 238.8 for the previous week. The annual rate of inflation stood at -0.21% for the week ended August 22, 2009 as compared to -0.95% for the previous week August 15, 2009 and 12.76% during the corresponding week August 23, 2008 of the previous year.The government announced that it revised the inflation for June 27 week to -1.09% from -1.55%.

The BSE Sensex fell by 69 points or 0.5% at 15,398 after touching a high of 15,598 and a low of 15,356. The index opened at 15,539 against the previous close of 15,467. The NSE Nifty was down by 15 points to shut shop at 4,593.

In Asia, the Nikkei in Japan slipped by 0.6% at 10,214 while Australia's S&P/ASX ended lower by 0.2% at 4,429. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 1.2% at 19,761. Shanghai index in China was up by 4.7% at 2,845.

In Europe, stocks were mixed. The FTSE in the UK was flat, The DAX in Germany was up 0.2% and the CAC 40 index in France was down 0.2%.

Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the Oil & Gas index was the top loser, shedding 1.1%, followed by the Pharma index that was down 0.7%. The BSE Capital Goods index down 0.7% and the BSE Power index was down 0.5%.

The BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.3% and the BSE Small-Cap index gained by 0.8%.

Among the 30-components of Sensex, 21 stocks ended in the green and 8 ended in the negative terrain. Among the major losers were Reliance Industries, Bharti, L&T, ONGC and ITC.

On the other hand bucking the negative trend were, Infosys, RCom, SBI, Sterlite and Tata Steel.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Cadila, EKC, Pantaloon, Chennai Petro, Torrent Power and Mphasis. On the other hand, losers included Renuka, IVRCL, GVK Power, BEML and Jubilant.

BPCL plans to partially shut its crude-oil processing plant in Mumbai in October for nearly 2 months to upgrade equipment that produces cleaner-burning fuels.

The company plans to close a unit that reduces sulfur content in gasoline and diesel for an upgrade to produce fuels that meet Euro III and Euro IV specifications, the director for refineries R.K. Singh, was quoted as saying.

"It will be mandatory to sell Euro III and Euro IV fuels from April 1 and this shutdown is part of that process," Singh added.

The stock gained by 2.5% to Rs554. The stock opened at Rs545 and made an intra-day high of Rs561 and a low of Rs543. Total traded volumes stood at 0.19mn shares.

Shares of Parsvnath surged by over 2.5% to Rs120 after the company plans to sell as much as US$100mn of shares and a stake in a real estate project in an attempt to trim its debt to a third by March, Pradeep Jain the company's Chairman said was quoted as saying.

The company aims to sell shares to institutional investors by the end of October, and the stake in a housing project this month to a PE fund, Jain added. In June, the company got 900 million rupees ($18.4 million) from private equity firm Red Fort Capital for a stake in a New Delhi housing project.

Shares of Maytas Infra were locked at 5% upper circuit to end at Rs130.5 after about 2.67mn equity shares or 4.5% of its equity, change hands in eight transactions. The stock opened at Rs130.5 and made an intra-day high of Rs130.5 and a low of Rs124. Total traded volumes stood at 2.3mn shares.

Shares of Aban Offshore gained by 2.2% to Rs1570 after media reports stated that the company has deployed two more rigs in Iran. The stock opened at Rs1591 and made an intra-day high of Rs1616 and a low of Rs1541. Total traded volumes stood at 1.3mn shares.

Shares of Wall Street Finance were locked at 10% upper circuit at Rs55.85 after the Anil Ambani Group sold its entire stake in the company.

We have decided to exit our investment in Wall Street Finance as the business conflicts with Reliance Money Express," Sudip Bandyopadhyay, MD said.

It had acquired the shares at around Rs36-38 against the current market price of Rs51. Reliance Money made a neat profit of Rs60-70mn.

Shares of Moser Baer shot up by over 3% to Rs90.65 after the company got a contract to build 1 mega watt Solar Power Plant. The stock opened at Rs89 and made an intra-day high of Rs91.60 and a low of Rs88. Total traded volumes stood at 0.8mn shares.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Market Outlook - July 23 2009

Thursday, June 04, 2009

A dry spell!

If you refuse to be made straight when you are green, you will not be made straight when you are dry.

After a flood of gains, we may have a brief dry spell in the market. We hear that the monsoon, like the economic progress, may be slow after an unexpected early start. We see a subdued start with profit-taking in most counters. Strong hands could however rescue select counters. Expectations have shot through the roof in the wake of the UPA’s massive electoral triumph. The UPA may be slower on reforms. Some expectations may not even be met. All eyes are therefore on the budget (for now).

Stocks have had a strong run in the past three months. Though the bias is positive, this leaves less headroom for major gains without a meaningful correction. Concerns remain on widening fiscal deficit, not just in India but globally. The loose monetary policy has led to a liquidity deluge. This may result in fresh asset price inflation. Crude oil has already shot up. Though there is talk of oil price deregulation, but it remains to be seen if Mr. Deora walks the talk given the political compulsion.

GMR Infra, Power Finance Corp. and Sundram Fasteners will announce their results today.

US stocks slipped on Wednesday, as investors locked in some gains after a four-session advance, after mixed readings on the US economy. Traders were also cautious ahead of reports on retail sales and labor market due later this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 66 points, or 0.8%. The S&P 500 index fell 13 points, or 1.4%. The Nasdaq Composite index dipped 11 points, or 0.6%.

Reports on the job market, factory orders and the services sector of the US economy were in focus, along with congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Stock declines were broad based, with 24 of 30 Dow issues falling, led by oil companies Chevron and Exxon Mobil. Oil prices fell after the government's weekly inventory report showed a larger-than-expected build up in inventories.

Oil services firm Valero Energy tumbled 18% after warning that it would report a quarterly loss rather than a quarterly profit analysts expected. The company also said it will make an additional 40 million shares available.

A couple of reports showed the pace of job losses could be slowing.

Private-sector employers cut 532,000 jobs in May after paring 545,000 in April, according to payroll-services firm ADP. Expectations were for 525,000 cuts.

A separate report showed the number of job cuts announced in May fell for the fourth month in a row. According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., job cut announcements by US employers were 111,182 in the month, down from 132,590 in April. The figure was the lowest total since last September, but still up from a year earlier.

The reports set the tone for the broader May non-farm payrolls report due out Friday.

The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) index on the services sector of the economy improved to 44 from 43.7 in April. However, that was short of forecasts for an improvement to 45.

Factory orders rose 0.7% in April after falling 1.9% in March. Economists thought orders would climb 0.9%.

Fed chief Bernanke told the House Budget Committee that while data show the pace of the recession is slowing, the US economy still has a lot of work ahead of it. In particular, he talked about the impact of the still-weak labor market and decline in household wealth.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.54% from 3.61% on Tuesday.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the euro and yen.

US light crude oil for July delivery fell $2.43 to settle at $66.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for August delivery slipped $18.70 to settle at $964.50 an ounce.

Losses for commodity-sector stocks and banks weighed on Europe. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index lost 2% to 209.90, down for the second straight session.

Eurozone GDP fell 2.5% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2009, data confirmed on Wednesday. The annual drop was revised down to 4.8%, from an earlier reading of 4.6%.

The UK-based FTSE 100 index declined 2.1% to 4,383.42, while the French CAC-40 index fell 2% to 3,309.65 and Germany's DAX index lost 1.7% to 5,054.53.

The Sensex ended flat at 14,871 after touching a high of 15,046 and a low of 14,733. The index had opened at 14,902 against the previous close of 14,874.

The NSE Nifty ended flat to shut shop at 4,520.

Volume buzzers in the Mid-Cap and Small-Cap zone, Alok Industries, Dish TV, Anu’s Lab, S Kumars Nationwide, Spice Jet and Hinachal Futuristic were among the top traded stocks.

Among the BSE Sectoral indices BSE Consumer Durable index was the top gainer surging 4.4%, followed by the BSE FMCG index up 4%, BSE Pharma index up 2.5%, BSE Metal index up 1.5% and BSE Power index up 1%.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.5% and BSE Small-Cap index added 2%.

Shares of Sundaram-Clayton have surged by over 5.8% to Rs160 after ~7.4mn equity shares of the company changed hands in a single transaction. The deal was at an average price of Rs165 per share on the BSE.

The scrip has touched an intra-day high of Rs166 and a low of Rs151 and has recorded volumes of over 7.5mn shares on BSE.

Shares of Tata Motors gained by over 3.6% to Rs362 after reports stated that Moody’s upgraded the outlook on Tata Motors from negative to stable. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs378 and a low of Rs355 and recorded volumes of over 1.7mn shares on BSE.

Shares of ACC surged by over 4% to Rs819 after the company announced that its cement dispatches were up 1.1% yoy to 1.82mn tones in May 2009. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs822 and a low of Rs792 and recorded volumes of over 1.7mn shares on BSE.

Shares of JSW Steel gained by 3% to Rs586. Reports stated that the company has deferred Rs350bn 10mtpa West Bengal project. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs591 and a low of Rs548 and recorded volumes of over 1.1mn shares on BSE.

Shares of MTNL gained by 3.5% to Rs110 after reports stated that the company was aiming at 300,000 subscribers for its 3G service. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs112 and a low of Rs107 and recorded volumes of over 0.9mn shares on BSE.

SEBI cleared the open offer for Satyam Computer Services by Tech Mahindra.
The regulatory body asked Tech Mahindra to share with the company’s stakeholders the information Satyam had provided to the bidders. The open offer commences on June 12 and closes on July 1, 2009.

Shares of Satyam Computer surged by over 7% to Rs67 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs68 and a low of Rs64 and recorded volumes of over 40mn shares on BSE.

Meanwhile, shares of Tech Mahindra shot up by over 18% to Rs658 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs679 and a low of Rs560 and recorded volumes of over 1.7mn shares on BSE.

Aptech Ltd completed the process of sale of its 50% equity interest in the China JV Company and has also received its 22% allotment of shares in the holding Company, Beijing Jadebird IT Education Company Ltd (BJBC).

In terms of the definitive agreements, company including its subsidiaries would also be entitled to receive, prior to the proposed Initial Public offering of BJBC, as much of its distributable profits as possible, subject to any legal, accounting or working capital requirements as may be determined by the Board of Directors of BJBC.

In this regard, the definitive agreements envisages payment of a one-time special dividend, which in any event shall not be less than RMB 193 mn (equivalent to approx. US$ 28 million /approx. Rs1350 mn), in which share of Aptech India including its subsidiaries would be 22%.

Shares of Aptech rallied by over 14% to Rs193 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs197 and a low of Rs170 and recorded volumes of over 1.5mn shares on BSE.

After hitting the 15k, markets would enter into a consolidation phase which is seen in the past couple of trading sessions. While stocks may remain firm in the near term, one must stay guarded given the euphoric rally.

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