Post Session Market Analysis for Feb 10, 2011

The domestic bourses continued its downward journey for the third consecutive session as lack of driving factors kept the participants skeptical about further direction. The market started off the session on a quite note and started hovering around the neutral line. During morning trade, the Asian peers traded lower, on account of profit booking after overnight fall in the US market. The US market closed flat after Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke stated that the unemployment rate is likely to remain high for some time. The subdued response in the Asian front was due to unwinding of positions by investors ahead of the long weekend.

After opening marginally on the higher side, the market plunged below the baseline and started trading rangebound. A fresh bout of selling was seen among the Realty and IT space which dragged the benchmark Nifty to the lowest point since 15th June 2010, near the 5190 mark. The market bounced back from such level and touched the baseline. But however, the rally didn't sustain and the Nifty was seen journeying towards the session low. The 5,190 Nifty level acted as a solid level as the market bounced back twice from there. The rallies seen during the session were backed by the food price inflation figures which showed signs of cooling. Finally, the benchmark indices closed with more than 0.50% losses, after rallying above the baseline twice. The negative opening for the European bourses further dampened the sentiment in the domestic front.

In the sectoral front, the IT and Realty sectors were the laggards for the session, plunging by 1.53% and 1.03% respectively. However, the Auto, Power and Healthcare space looked strong during the session, gaining by 0.83%, 0.82% and 0.58% respectively. Both the Nifty and Sensex traded on a weak note throughout the session with extreme volatility and finally closed with more than 0.50% losses each. The flattish closing for the overnight US markets had limited impact on the domestic market during morning trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed with a gain of 6.74 points or 0.06% at 12,239.89, while NASDAQ index finished lower by 7.98 points or 0.29% to 2,789.07. The S&P; 500 (SPX) closed lower by 3.69 points or 0.28% to 1,320.88.

Among the Sensex pack, 16 stocks ended in negative while 14 ended in the positive terrain. The overall market breadth reflected similar weakness, as out of total 2,968 stocks traded on BSE, 1,811 stocks declined, whereas 1,032 stocks advanced and 125 stocks remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex closed down by 129.73 points or (0.74%) at 17,463.04 and NSE Nifty ended lower by 27.75 points or (0.53%) at 5,225.80. BSE Midcap closed with a loss of 7.05 points or (0.11%) at 6,292.18 while BSE Smallcap closed lower by 66.17 points or (0.86%) at 7,585.65. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,636.88 and intraday low of 17,362.59.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack were - Rel Infra (9.45%), JP Assoc (5.25%), Tata Motors (2.37%), Rel Comm (1.79%) and DLF (1.45%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack were - SBI (3.64%), Bharti Artl (2.80%), Sterlite Inds (2.53%), BHEL (2.48%) and Infosys (2.27%).

On the macroeconomic front, for the current year, the production of wheat and the food grains have reached an all time high, to reach an expected level of 81.47 million tonnes and 232.07 tonnes respectively.

The country will witness record production in wheat, pulses and cotton this crop year

, Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar told reporters today announcing the second advance estimate for 2010-11 crop year (July-June). The credit for the increased production goes to the farmers for their hard work and Sharad Pawar praised them for the same. However, in the crop year 2009-10 the wheat production and the food grains stood at 80.8 million tons and 218.11 tons respectively. In addition to this production of pulses, cotton and rice also rose to 16.51 million tons, 33.9 million bales and 94.01 million to