Post Session Commentary - May 25 2009

Markets closed the today’s session on flat note after exhibiting volatility during the trading as investors booked profit in key stocks. Domestic indices were not able to stick on a particular direction on continuous bouts of buying and selling. However, market gained some ground during mid session following view of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee about measures to revive the economy. Meanwhile, during the trading Ranbaxy Laboratories remained in limelight on the news that Mr. Malvinder Mohan Singh has stepped down from the positions of Chairman, CEO and Managing Director of Ranbaxy with immediate effect. In addition, Mr. Sunil Godhwani, Mr. Balinder Singh Dhillon and Mr. Atul Sobti also resigned from the Directorship of the Company with immediate effect.
The market opened higher but turned volatile soon after start tracking mixed cues from the global markets. Initially, the Asian markets were mixed and the US stock markets on Friday closed lower as late selling pressure led stocks erased earlier gains. There was news from the US market that governments borrowing cost climbed to a six month high and investors sold shares before the holiday. Further, domestic benchmark indices slipped lower on selling pressure as inventors were cautious ahead of F&O expiry this week. During afternoon trade, market gathered some momentum and witnessed recovery amid choppy trade. Market lost ground once again to close on flat note after rolling between positive and negative territory. BSE Sensex ended below 14,000 level and NSE Nifty closed below 4,250 level. From the sectoral front, most of the buying was witnessed in Consumer Durable, Realty, Pharma, FMCG, Metal and PSU stocks. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks outperformed today and ended sharply higher. However, IT and Teck stocks were unable to gain favour from the market.
Among the Sensex pack 19 stocks ended in green territory and 11 in red. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained extremely positive as 2470 stocks closed in green while 316 stocks closed in red and 30 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.
The BSE Sensex closed marginally up by 26.07 points at 13,913.22 whereas NSE Nifty ended slightly down by 0.95 points at 4,237.55. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 134.47 and 276.27 points at 4,890.15 and 5,789.43 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,028.06 and intraday low of 13,819.25.
Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Ranbaxy Lab (20.73%), JP Associates (7.16%), Sterlite Industries (5.94%), DLF Ltd (5.42%), ITC Ltd (3.60%), Tata Power (3.04%), Sun Pharma (2.14%), RCom (2.12%), Tata Steel (1.50%), Maruti Suzuki (1.06%) and Reliance Infra (0.97%).
Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Bharti Airtel (5.41%), NTPC Ltd (1.66%), HDFC (1.63%), Grasim Industries (1.63%), ACC Ltd (1.06%), HDFC Bank (0.79%), SBI (0.68%), ONGC Ltd (0.59%) and Wipro Ltd (0.56%).
On the global markets front the Asian markets which opened before the Indian market, ended mostly higher as investors signed off news that North Korea had conducted a nuclear test. In Addition, Japanese electronic retailers jumped on reports of strong home appliance sales. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225 and Straits Times index ended higher by 12.41, 59.30, 121.19 and 22.19 points at 2,610.01, 17,121.82, 9,347 and 2,267.46 respectively. However, Seoul Composite lost 2.85 points at 1,400.90.
European markets which opened after the Indian market are trading mixed. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading down by 27.68 points at 4,891.07 whereas in London FTSE 100 is trading higher by 19.82 points at 4,362.29.
The BSE Consumer Durable index outperformed the benchmark indices as ended higher by (4.79%) or 120.05 points to close at 2,627.84. Gitanjali GE (18.78%), Videocon Ind (11.82 %), Rajesh Export (9.59%) and Titan Ind (2.67%) ended in positive territory.
The BSE Realty stocks advanced by 4.25%) or 140.65 points to close at 3,451.44. Major gainers are Parsvnath (9.96%), Ansal Infra (9.91%), Unitech Ltd (8.28%), Akruti City (4.99%) and Anant Raj (4.98%).
The BSE Pharma ended up by (2.83%) or 95.62 points at 3,472.93. Gainers are Ranbaxy Lab (20.73%), Sunpha Adv (13.77%), Glenmark Pharma (13.70%), Orchid Chem (9.25%) and Biocon Ltd (8.63%).
The BSE FMCG index gained (2.73%) or 56.78 points to close at 2,137.31. Main gainers are United Brew (19.98%), Escorts Ltd (8.14%), ITC Ltd (3.60%), Dabur India (3.56%) and Godrej Cons (3.48%).
The BSE Metal index closed with increase of (1.96%) or 190.57 points at 9,931.46 after a gauge of six metals in London advanced. Scrips that gained are Ispat Industries (12.27%), NMDC Ltd (11.70%), Welspan Gujarat (9.54%), Gujarat NRE C (7.02%) and Sterlite Industries (5.94%).
The BSE Teck index lost (0.89%) or 21.86 points to close at 2,447.28. Losers are Bharti Airtel (5.41%), IBN18 (2.36%), Aptech Ltd (1.94%), Aptech Ltd (1.83%) and UTV Software (1.61%).
Bharti Airtel ended lower by 5.41%. Bharti Airtel is now eyeing for a significant partnership with MTN Group Limited (“MTN”). Bharti and MTN have agreed to discuss the potential transaction exclusively with one another until July 31, 2009.
Reliance Infra advanced by 0.97%. The company’s board has approved to raise Rs.43,000 crore by issuing up to 43 million preferential shares to its founders and other investors. The fund raised would enable the company to participate in a bigger way in infrastructure projects.
Parsvnath Developers Ltd zoomed up 9.96% on its plan raise up to Rs 2500 crore.
Godrej Industries Ltd surged by 4.98% after the company said it has started buying back shares from the open market from today, 25 May 2009.