Post Session Commentary - Jan 20 2009

The Indian market ended lower tracking negative cues from the Asian markets. Investors were spooked by the fears that the global financial sector crisis would trigger more foreign fund outflows that pulled the market lower. Concern about global banking sector revived on record loses at British bank. Crisis-stricken Royal Bank of Scotland took spanking new help from the government and announced that its losses for last year could reach $41.3 billion, the biggest ever for a British corporation.

The domestic market today opened on a weak note on fears of global financial crises that may deepen the world''s economic downturn. Foreign funds started fresh selling after Royal Bank of Scotland posted the largest loss in the UK’s banking history. The market also kept an eye on the Barrack Obama’s swearing in as the new President of the United States of America later Tuesday, which could probably provide some positive sentiment to global equities. Further, benchmark indices tried to recover on recovery in US index futures. Market extended its losses and slipped sharply again as US index futures were not able to hold their earlier gains. Negative sentiments continued to knock the market till end. From the sectoral front, the majority of indices ended in red. Most of the selling was seen in Metal, Reality, Bank, Oil & Gas, Auto and Teck stocks. Midcap and Smallcap stocks also followed the same trend. However, Power and PSU stocks were in limelight as were able to gain market favor.

Among the Sensex pack 27 stocks ended in red territory and 3 in green. The market breadth remained negative as 1342 stocks closed in red while 1018 stocks closed in green and 95 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 229.02 points at 9,100.55 and NSE Nifty ended down by 49.60 points at 2,796.60. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with losses of 27.52 points and 12.37 points at 3,016.01 and 3,439.09 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,159.76 and intraday low of 9,033.55.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Steel (6.34%), Bharti Airtel (4.88%), Sterlite Industries (4.75%), RCom (4.65%), JP Associates (4.12%), HDFC (4.09%), Hindalco (4.04%), Reliance (3.84%), ICICI Bank (3.81%), ACC Ltd (3.37%), Maruti Suzuki (3.34%) and SBI (3.06%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are NTPC Ltd (4.27%), Reliance Infra (3.16%) and Tata Power (1.04%).

On the global markets front, the Asian Markets tumbled on Tuesday on worries for European banks as Royal Bank of Scotland''s massive loss renewed jitters about the health of global banks amid a protracted economic slump. Along with this, every one is waiting for Obama’s inauguration speech when he will take power as the 44th U.S. president. Hang Seng index closed lower by 380.22 points at 12,959.77. Along with this, Nikkei, Straits Times and Seoul Composite index ended down by 191.06, 23.62 and 23.84 points at 8,065.79, 1,723.37 and 1,126.81 respectively.

The European Markets are trading firm following a sell-off the day before. Though, U.K. price inflation fell sharply in December to 3.1% as against 4.1% November and investors were worried that the British government''s plans for a second financial sector bailout in three months could lead to the full nationalization of one or more banks. The DAX is up by 62.53 points at 4,378.67 and FTSE 100 is higher 68.24 points at 4,176.71.

The BSE Metal stocks tumbled on fall in metal prices on the London Metal Exchange and ended lower by (3.76%) or 191.25 points at 4,896.79. Main losers are Tata Steel (6.34%), Welspan Gujarat Sr (5.96%), Sterlite Industries (4.75%), Steel Authority (4.72%), Sesa Goa Ltd (4.45%) and Hindalco (4.04%).

The BSE Reality index also followed the southward direction as ended down by (3.31%) or 58.31 points at 1,702.77. Major losers are Ansal Infra (6.00%), Housing Development (5.70%), Indiabull Real (4.90%), Unitech Ltd (4.39%), Orbit Co (2.94%) and Pheonix Mill (2.89%).

The BSE Bank index tumbled (3.11%) or 155.31 points to close at 4,833.11 on weak sentiment for bank shares globally led by record losses reported by British bank Royal Bank of Scotland. Oriental Bank (4.73%), ICICI Bank (3.81%), Union Bank (3.70%), Axis Bank (3.64%) and Yes Bank (3.38%) ended in negative territory.

The BSE Oil & Gas index also remained out of favour as crude oil prices fell overnight and ended lower by (2.60%) or 156.81 points at 5,863.59. Losers are Reliance (3.84%), Gail India (2.87%), Reliance Natural Resources (2.70%), Cairn Ind (2.52%), Essar Oil Ltd (2.34%) and Reliance Pet (1.85%).

The BSE Auto index fell as high interest rates and sluggish consumer spending have dented demand for automobiles in India. It closed with decrease of (2.59%) or 65.97 points at 2,476.47. Scrips that lost are Bajaj Auto (7.76%), Exide Indus (4.89%), Cummins Indi (3.50%), Maruti Suzuki (3.34%), M&M Ltd (2.99%) and Tata Motors (2.96%).

The BSE Power index witnessed most of the buying as ended up by (1.44%) or 25.52 points to close at 1,803.09 as Neyveli LIG (13.27%), Power Grid (10.73%), Torrent Power (6.12%), NTPC Ltd (4.27%), Reliance Infra (3.16%) and GVK Power (2.98%) ended in green.