Post-Market Report March 18, 2008

After witnessing a swing of 493 points in intra-day trades, the Sensex ended with marginal gains.
A rebound on the bourses after yesterday's sharp slump proved short
lived as the Sensex gave up most of its intra-day gains in choppy
trade. The market registered small gains for the day. The market
had surged in afternoon trade after reports of top corporates
paying higher advance tax in the fourth installment of 15 March
2008, raised expectations of good Q4 March 2008 results. Firm
European markets had also aided the rally. The market had witnessed
a bout of volatility earlier in the day.
Exhibiting sharp volatility in the first half, the Sensex resumed with a negative gap of 84 points at 14,726 and soon crossed the 17,700 mark to touch an intra-day high of 14,677 on sustained selling across the board. However, the market soon drifted into positive territory as a sharp bout of buying pressure dragged the index to an intra-day high of 15,170. After erasing losses in the noon trades, the Sensex once again notched up significant gains on renewed buying support before profit taking saw the Sensex shed some gains and end the session at 14,833, up 24 points. However, the Nifty after a mixed outing ended higher at 4,533, up 30 points.
The market breadth was weak: On BSE 1,925 shares declined as
compared to 745 shares that advanced. 45 shares remained unchanged.
18 out of 30 Sensex stocks were trading in green.
The BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.48% to 6,033.91 and BSE Small-Cap
index declined 2.09% to 7,365.20.
BSE Consumer Durables index (down 0.68% to 3,613.90), BSE Oil & Gas
index (down 0.92% to 9,711.60), BSE Metal index (down 2.07% to
13,440.78), BSE IT index (up 0.04% to 3,298.87), BSE Bankex (down
0.99% to 7,493.97), BSE PSU index (up 0.01% to 7,154.31)
underperformed Sensex.
BSE Power index (up 0.62% to 2,992.01), BSE HealthCare index (up
0.64% to 3,644.93), BSE Capital Goods index (up 1.79% to 12,933.88)
BSE Auto index (up 0.22% to 4,339.07), BSE Realty index (up 1.92%
to 7,243) and BSE FMCG index (up 0.53% to 2,130.74) outperformed
Sensex.
From the Sensex pack, Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 3.4% to Rs 452.85),
Hindustan Unilever (up 3.8% to Rs 231.05), DLF (up 5.3% to Rs
634.75), Tata Consultancy Services (up 3.17% to Rs 817.30), Bharat
Heavy Electricals (up 1.55% to Rs 1,823.80), Reliance
Communications (up 3.03% to Rs 497.80) and Cipla (up 2.02% to Rs
204.45) were major gainers.