Market Closing Session - 20th Aug

The market ended with decent gains after it had posted losses for the last five successive trading sessions. However, it came off from a intra-day high hit in late trade.

Asian stocks rebounded from a two-year low as Chinese shares surged on hopes the government will introduce a stimulus package to boost the slowing economy and aid the stock and property markets. European markets which opened after Indian market were in green.

The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 134.50 points or 0.92% to 14,678.23. At days high of 14,746.20, the index gained 202.47 points in late trade. At the days low of 14,584.03, the Sensex was up 40.30 points in mid-morning trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty rose 47.50 points or 1.09% to 4,415.75.

Sensex had lost 960.19 points or 6.6% to 14,543.73 on 19 August 2008 from a recent high of 15503.92 hit on 11 August 2008. The barometer index is down 5,608.76 points or 27.64% in the calendar year 2008 so far from its close of 20,286.99 on 31 December 2007. It is 6,528.54 points or 30.78% away from its all-time high of 21,206.77 struck on 10 January 2008.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4,233 crore today, 20 August 2008 as compares to turnover of Rs 3,972.48 crore on 19 august 2008.

Nifty August 2008 futures were at 4442.35, a sharp 26.60-point premium over the spot closing of 4,415.75. NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment turnover fell to Rs 38567.7 crore from Rs 43426.67 crore on Tuesday, 19 August 2008.

As per the provisional figures on BSE, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 447.34 crore while domestic funds bought shares worth Rs 205.60 crore today,20 August 2008.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.04% to 5,826.37 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.76% at 7,066.23.

BSE Realty index (up 1.76% to 5,207.81), BSE Power index (up 1.72% to 2,660.14), BSE Capital Goods index (up 1.72% to 12,269.52), BSE Metal index (up 1.65% to 12,475.65), BSE HealthCare index (up 1.64% to 4,336.76), BSE Teck index (up 1.26% to 3,048.19), BSE PSU index (up 1.2% to 6,975.66) outperformed Sensex.

BSE FMCG index (down 0.05% to 2,161.71), BSE Auto index (up 0.23% to 3,858.27), BSE IT index (up 0.28% to 3,903.22), BSE Consumer Durables index (up 0.3% to 3,794.77), BSE Oil & Gas index (up 0.45% to 10,032.47), BSE Bankex (up 0.63% to 6,935.78) underperformed Sensex.

The market breadth was strong on BSE with 1,666 shares advancing as compared to 969 that declined. 83 shares remained unchanged.

Indias largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 1.03% to Rs 2,244.15. It came off from sessions high of Rs 2,258.40

Large-cap diversified firm Grasim Industries rose 3.64% to Rs 2,028.35. It recovered from sessions low of Rs 1,955.

Indias largest electric equipment maker by sales Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 3.4% to Rs 1,734.90. It came off from sessions high of Rs 1,743 hit in late trade.

Indiaa largest engineering and construction firm by sales Larsen & Toubro rose 1.5% to Rs 2,714.65. It came off from sessions high of Rs 2,725 hit in late trade. As per reports, L&T is close to buying equity stake in coal mines in Australia and Indonesia to increase its focus on the power sector. In the next couple of years, L&T hopes to have 4,000-6,000 megawatt (MW) of power plants under development and the equity in coal mines abroad will be to feed these power plants.

India's largest listed telecom services provider by sales Bharti Airtel rose 2.99% to Rs 815.25. It recovered from the sessions low of Rs 793.

India's second largest private sector bank by net profit HDFC Bank rose 2.52% to Rs 1,237.90. It recovered from sessions low of Rs 1,202.05.

India's largest drug maker by sales Ranbaxy Laboratories rose 2.71% to Rs 505.65. It recovered from sessions low of Rs 489.

Realty stocks rose. Unitech (up 2.52% to Rs 169.15), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 1.53% to Rs 315.85), Housing Development & Infrastructure (up 0.67% to Rs 405.25) edged higher.

Indias largest real estate player by market capitalization DLF rose 1.9% to Rs 509.90. It came off from its high of Rs 514.50 hit in late trade.

Power stocks rose. Reliance Infrastructure (up 1.55% to Rs 1,009.70), Reliance Power (up 2.23% to Rs 160.60), NTPC (up 1.41% to Rs 183.95), PowerGrid Corporation of India (up 1.25% to Rs 93.35), Tata Power Company (up 0.59% to Rs 1,024.35) edged higher.

Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.08% to Rs 549.55), ONGC (down 2.52% to Rs 1,035.85), Satyam Computer Services (down 0.74% to Rs 402.65), ICICI Bank (down 0.01% to Rs 678.30), edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Jaiprakash Associates (up 1.27% to Rs 171.40), HDFC (up 1.24% to Rs 2,311.55), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.17% to Rs 623.40) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

Indias second largest IT exporter by sales Infosys rose 0.3% to Rs 1,698.70. The stock recovered from sessions low of Rs 1,680.10. Infosys Technologies chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan today, 20 August 2008, said the business environment remained challenging but there was no move by clients for lower prices.

Indias second largest telecom services provider by sales Reliance Communications (RCom) rose 3.76% to Rs 414.85. It had touched a high of Rs 418.20 in late trade. The company on Tuesday launched satellite television operation under the name Big TV. It will compete with Dish TV, state-owned Prasar Bharti's DD Direct, Sun TV's DTH arm and Tata Sky, a venture of the Tata Group and News Corp.

Reliance Natural Resources clocked the highest volume of 1.89 crore shares on BSE. Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals (1.14 crore shares), Ispat Industries (93.68 lakh shares), Vishal Information Technologies (91.79 lakh shares) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals (76.53 lakh shares) were the other volume toppers in that order.

Vishal Information Technologies clocked the highest turnover of Rs 287.01 crore on BSE. Reliance Capital (Rs 233.66 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 187.56 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 168.61 crore) and SEL Manufacturing Company (Rs 159.90 crore) were the other turnover toppers in that order.

European markets were in green. Frances CAC40, Germanys DAX and UKs FTSE 100 were up between 0.32% to 0.73%.

Most of the Asian markets were trading higher today, 20 August 2008. China's Shanghai Composite, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Singapore's Straits Times rose between 0.39% to 7.63%. However, Japan's Nikkei andSouth Korea's Seoul Composite fell between 0.05% to 0.1%.

US markets declined for a second straight day yesterday, 20 August 2008, as an inflation report agitated a market already rattled by worries about the financial sector. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 130.84 points, or 1.14%, to 11,348.55. The S&P 500 index lost 11.90 points, or 0.93%, to 1,266.70, and the Nasdaq Composite index slipped 32.62 points, or 1.35%, to 2,384.36.