Post Market Commentary - March 27 2008

The Indian market closed on a mixed note with NSE Nifty closed with marginal gains while Sensex closed in negative. The market face the volatility since the initial start of the session due to the global concerns like February durables goods report by the US government raised fresh doubts about the economy of US. As per the commerce department, the durables goods fell 1.7%, which was the second monthly fall in a row. Also, the sales of new homes fell b1.8% in February for the fourth consecutive month as the steep slump in housing continued. Also, the expiry of the derivatives contract today adds to the sentiment. From the sectoral front, the Realty and Metal index remained in the limelight as most buying was witnessed from these baskets. While the Mid Cap and Small Cap, which faced the selling pressures at the initial session managed to recover from the fall to post good gains.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 71.27 points at 16,015.56 while NSE Nifty closed up by 1.4 points at 4,830.25. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed higher by 5.23 points and 87.82 points at 6,276.26 and 7,526.78 respectively

The market breadth was strong as 1,493 stocks closed in green as against 1223 stocks that closed in red.

The BSE Realty index surged 170.92 points to close at 7,651.29. Major gainers are Parsvnath (5.48%), Omaxe (5.16%), HDIL (4.78%), Unitech (3.99%), Penland (3.17%), DLF (2.47%) and Phoenix mill (0.35%).

The Metal index closed higher by 108.80 points at 13,853.98. Gainers are Gujarat NRE (6.93%), Hindalco Inds (6.61%), Maharash Sea (6.56%), SH. Precoated (4.98%), Welspun Guj (3.71%) and Sterlite Inds (1.27%).

The Bankex index closed lower by 125.14 points at 8,176.66. Major losers are Union bank (4.05%), Axis bank (4.03%), SBI (3.69%), Yes bank (2.77%), Andhra bank (2.37%) and Allahabad bank (2%).

The Capital Goods index fell by 79.30 points to close at 13,714.74 as Kirloskar BR (5.95%), Bharat Elec (5.05%), L&T (2.71%) and BEML (1.48%) closed lower while SKF India (7.73%), Suzlon energy (5.04%), Areva (4.03%) and Thermax (3.78%) closed higher.

The Oil and Gas index dropped by 63.58 points to close at 10,160.98 as IOCL (3.48%), Aban Offshore (2.68%), HPCL (2.56%), GAIL India (1.33%), Reliance inds (1.03%) and RPL (0.71%) while Cairn India (1.97%), Essar Oil (0.45%) and RNRL (0.3%) closed higher.

The IT index decreased by 112.80 points to close at 3,579.75. Losers are Mphasis (6.54%), HCL Tech (4.83%), NIIT Ltd (4.83%), Patni Comp (4.55%), Satyam (4.35%), Educomp Soln (3.53%) and TCS (2.97%).

From the FMCG space, Glaxosmithkline Cons (5.09%), HUL (4.10%), ITC (2.54%), Nestle (2.16%), REI Agro (0.56%), Britannia (0.32%) and Tata Tea (0.16%) closed in green.