Market Close: Yet the same.. Start with a bang and end with a whimper !

All eyes were on ECB and BOE which had their meeting today. Market across saw profit booking. US markets endd up on the back of Fed's decision to keep interest rate unchanged. Indian Indices rallied at the start but selling engulfed after Europe started off weak fuelling the sell off in Indian markets. Buying activity was witnessed across all sectors along with small caps and mid caps. Companies like AIA Engg, Rolta, Everest Kanto, Educomp, Financial Tech etc rallied after the news that they will be in FNO segment from Monday 14th, 2007. Rupee depreciated today as it closed at Rs 41.28 per Dollar.

It was a cautious start in Europe ahead of interest rate decisions. The Bank of England has raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 bps to a six year high of 5.5%. While ECB kept its Interest rate unchanged. Asian Indices closed Tomorrow the UP election results will trickle in. Inflation number is expected to come in at 5.73%. There are talks of a SLR cut. The banking stocks were up in anticipation. There are reports of some policy changes here but really tough to even guess what could that be.

Sensex closed down by 10 points at 13771.23. Weighing on the Sensex were losses in ONGC (889.35,-2 percent), NTPC (151.1,-2 percent), Ranbaxy (385.9,-2 percent), Tata Motors (714.45,-1 percent) and L & T (1690.75,-1 percent). Losses were restricted by gains in HDFC (1680,+5 percent), TISCO (576.25,+2 percent), Bajaj Auto (2609,+2 percent), ITC (163.45,+2 percent) and HDFC Bk (1012.25,+2 percent).

It was a start with a bang and Indices raced up to almost 200 points gain. However after a choppy mid afternoon session, markets tumbled into negative on reports of some large basket selling by an FII. Reasons could be largely excuses attributed to the UP elections uncertainty and to the European Interest rate issues as well.

Maruti Udyog ended a percent lower. The bids for 2.96 cr shares or 10.27% stake in the company which is held by Govt. were invited. The floor price for the sale was placed at Rs.760 per share by the Govt. Shares were issued to 32 bidders out of the 36 bidders who had submitted their bids. Life Insurance Corporation of India which already holds 8% stake in the company was allotted 1 cr shares through the deal. Reliance Mutual was allotted 20 lakh shares. 12.3 lakh shares were given to Punjab National Bank while 10 lakh shares were allotted to HDFC mutual. SBI mutual got 7 lakh shares through this transaction. While Birla MF and SIDBI were not allotted any shares.The average realization for the transaction came to Rs.796 per share. The whole stake generated a revenue of Rs.2,368 to the Govt. The company is already feeling the impact of increased interest rates. The sale of stake is an event which is over with. We expect Maruti to see weakness in the face of increasing competition.

Domestic passenger car sales grew by 11.25 per cent in April at 82,934 units as against 74,542 units in the same month a year ago. Domestic motorcycle sales during the month stood at 4,63,091 units as against 5,12,695 units in the same month a year ago, down by 9.7 per cent. Overall two wheeler sales also dipped by 6 per cent to 5,70,381 units for the month ended April as against sales of 6,06,495 units registered in the corresponding month a year ago. Sale of commercial vehicles in the country grew by 6.5 per cent at 30,836 units as against 28,967 units in the corresponding month a year ago. However, The two wheelers have shown surprising weakness. The Passenger vehicles and CVs have shown strength. We would have actually expected otherwise. Strong interest rates are expected to have an impact in the coming quarters.

Technically Speaking: Sensex ended flat with Breadth in favor of Declines. Rs. 4,289 cr was the Overall term churned in BSE. Sensex Resistance lies at 14,000 levels while the support is at 13,630 levels.