Post Market Commentary - March 4 2008

Sensex plunges 1485 points in three days on Budget blues

The key indices drifted lower for a third consecutive session hit by Budget blues. Banking and realty stocks were worst hit in today’s trade. Auto stocks bucked the bearish trend. 19 out of 30 stocks from the Sensex pack were in the red. The market breadth was extremely weak.

BSE Sensex lost 337.99 points or 2.03% at 16,339.89.

CNX S&P Nifty was down 88.75 points or 1.79% at 4864.25.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 512.33 crore today. Domestic funds bought shares worth Rs 170.23 crore.

The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.48% at 7,182.23, while the BSE Small-Cap fell 3.09% at 8,953.28. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth was weak: on BSE, 497 advanced as compared to 2198 that declined. 42 stocks remained unchanged.

India's largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank fell 5.16% to Rs 971.60, off day’s low of Rs 929.10. The stock dropped on reports that the bank lost $264 million on account of the subprime crisis. However, ICICI Bank's Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar clarified in a television interview that ICICI Bank may have to provide for another $50 million of investment losses in this quarter on top of $70 million already provided for in Q3 December 2007. The write off will be due to its investments being marked to market rather than provisioning for a subprime loss as many large international banks have done.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 2.74% to Rs 2241.50, off session's low of Rs 2210.

Top Sensex gainers were, Hindalco Industries (up 5.27% at Rs 199.90), Maruti Suzuki (up 3.59% at Rs 905.70), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 3.08% at Rs 705.35), Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) (up 2.54% at Rs 2636.65), Tata Motors (up 1.25% at Rs 701.80) and Reliance Energy (up 1.29% at Rs 1504.75).

Top Sensex losers were, ACC (down 5.11% at Rs 746), DLF (down 5.11% at Rs 678.15), Reliance Communication (down 4.96% at Rs 514.55), Cipla (down 4.61% at Rs 201.90), ITC (down 4.22% at Rs 184.85) and Larsen & Toubro (down 3.61% at Rs 3223.15).

The BSE Bankex fell 4% at 9,056.76. It underperformed the Sensex. Yes Bank (down 9.97% at Rs 206.45), Canara Bank (down 6.43% at Rs 239.45), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 5.89% at Rs 685.80), Bank of India (down 5.88% at Rs 309.70), Axis Bank (down 3.32% at Rs 909.10) and State Bank of India (down 2.57% at Rs 1,873.95), declined.

The BSE Realty index fell 5.43% at 8,467.41. It underperformed the Sensex. Housing Development & Infrastructure (down 10% at Rs 724.90), Akruti City (down 9.51% at Rs 990.15), Indiabulls Real Estate (down 7.60% at Rs 550.95), Parsvnath Developers (down 5.26% at Rs 238.60) and Unitech (down 3.83% at Rs 326.50), slipped.

The BSE Metal index rose 0.22% at 15,833.58. It outperformed the Sensex. Sesa Goa (down 3.52% at Rs 3449.80), Gujarat NRE Coke (down 1.94% at Rs 152.20), Tata Steel (down 0.92% at Rs 777.75) and Sterlite Industries (down 0.62% at Rs 788.25), rose.

Among side counters, Lanco Infratech (down 9.12% at Rs 409.15), Moser Baer (down 8.99% at Rs 153.95), India Infoline (down 8.10% at Rs 915.60), Gujarat Petronet (down 7.92% at Rs 62.75) and Jaiprakash Associates (down 7.90% at Rs 244.95), declined sharply.

India's biggest producer of wind-turbine generators by sales Suzlon Energy slumped 4.38% to Rs 241 after UBS Securities Asia cut its share price estimate on the Suzlon stock by 31% to Rs 305 and downgraded the rating to 'neutral' from 'buy', citing higher raw material costs, rising warranty provisions and overall lower volumes.

Software firm Parle Software jumped 4.46% to Rs 536.10 after the company said its board will meet on 10 March 2008 to consider allotment of bonus shares in the ratio of three shares every one existing share.

Essar Oil clocked the highest turnover of Rs 314.90 crore on BSE. Reliance Industries (Rs 280.26 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 238.13 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 232.41 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (Rs 229.97 crore), were the other turnover toppers on BSE in that order.

Reliance Natural Resources recorded the highest volume of 1.96 crore shares on BSE. Reliance Petroleum (1.43 crore shares), Essar Oil (1.33 crore shares), IFCI (1.11 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (1.08 crore shares), were the other volume toppers on BSE in that order.