Small-caps rally as market awaits Fed rate cut

The market took a pause after the three-session rally, as the flat close in US markets and subdued Asian markets triggered a sell-off in frontline stocks. All round buying in the last three sessions had helped market to add over 400 points to the Sensex. However, the down trend in international markets on the back of more subprime losses hitting the US financial sector, despite an expected rate cut in Federal Reserve created a perfect platform for the traders to sell short frontline stocks. The market resumed with a gap of 109 points at 20,075, however, the mood turned cautious as trading progressed. But, the small-caps witnessed the strong buying support during the intra-day trades. Rain Commodities, Lanco Industries, Ero Ceramics and Abhishek Industries hit their upper circuit limits. The Sensex slipped to its day's low of 19,834 by afternoon on sustained selling in heavyweights, FMCG and power stocks. The Sensex finally ended the session with a marginal recovery at 19,931, down 35 points. Broad-based Nifty closed the session at 5,961, down 14 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,903 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,061 stocks advanced, 805 stocks declined and 37 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices had a positive outing on the BSE. The BSE CD index surged 2.18% at 6,059 followed by the BSE Realty (up 2.13% at 11,823) and the BSE Bankex index (up 0.95% at 1,1487). However, the BSE CG index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE Metal index and the BSE Power index closed with marginal losses.

Among the major Sensex gainers, Hindalco surged 2.63% at Rs193, ICICI Bank added 2.10% at Rs1,274, Infosys shot up by 1.76% at Rs1,748, DLF soared 1.44% at Rs1,026 and Bharti Airtel moved up by 1.13% at Rs970, while Reliance energy, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Steel closed with moderate gains. Among the laggards, TCS slipped 2.41% at Rs1,036, BHEL fell 2.40% at Rs2,677, Cipla lost 2.03% at Rs193, HDFC was down 1.67% at Rs2,872 and HDFC Bank lost 1.65% at Rs1,693.

Over 4.06 crore Tata Teleservices shares changed hands on the BSE followed by GV Films (2.92 crore shares), Ispat Industries (2.71 crore shares), Centurion Bank of Punjab (1.54 crore shares) and IFCI (1.42 crore shares).

Valuewise, Tata Teleservices registered a turnover of Rs232 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs212 crore), Ispat Industries (Rs193 crore), Essar Oil (Rs183 crore) and IFCI (Rs150 crore).