Market deep into the red

Key benchmark indices plunged deep into the red in early afternoon
trade after trading resumed at 12:10 IST after 45-minute stoppage
on account of sun outage, with Sensex losing more than 450 points.
Asian stocks dropped on persistent questions on the effectiveness
of the US bailout package and on continued instability in the
global banking sector. The barometer index BSE Sensex today fell
below the 13,000 mark.

Consumer durables stocks declined. FMCG stocks rose. ICICI Bank
fell more than 9% while Jaiprakash Associates fell more than 8%.
Reliance Industries dropped. The market breadth extremely weak as
selling was witnessed across the board.




The US lawmakers agreeing on a $700 billion bank-rescue package and
the House of Representatives approving the nuclear deal with India
over the weekend failed to boost the investor sentiments.

Rather, the instability in the banking industry continued to weigh
on the investors sentiments in Asia with the Belgian, Dutch and
Luxembourg governments forced to rescue financial firm Fortis over
the weekend. In addition, reports suggest the British government
will take over mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley. Most Asian
markets were trading lower today, 29 September 2008. Hong Kong's
Hang Seng, Japan's Nikkei, Singapore's Straits Times, South Korea's
Seoul Composite fell between 1.26% 2.9%.

In US, congressional leaders from both parties said they had a
tentative agreement on Sunday, 28 September 2008 and lawmakers
prepared to vote on Monday, 29 September 2008, on a $700 billion US
government fund to buy bad debt. The bailout plan will be
introduced in the House of Representatives today, 29 September 2008
and then head to the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Indo-US nuclear deal moved into the last lap
clearing a major hurdle when the House of Representatives approved
a legislation on it that will now go to the Senate before the two
countries can implement the civil nuclear agreement.

At 12:35 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 451.79 points or
3.45% to 12,650.39. The index shed 457.94 points at the day's low
of 12,644.24 hit in early afternoon trade. The Sensex edged up
11.35 points at day's high of 13,113.53, hit at the onset of the
trading session.




The S&P CNX Nifty was down 120.75 points or 3.03% to 3,864.50.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 4.21% at 4,732.73 and the BSE
Small-Cap index was down 4.21% at 5,615.17.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 290 shares advancing as
compared to 2,020 that declined. 39 shares remained unchanged.

India's largest private firm by market capitalization and oil
refiner Reliance Industries fell 2.65% to Rs 1,909.

Hindustan Unilever (up 2.1% to Rs 257.80) and ITC (up 0.65% to Rs
193.50) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

Jaiprakash Associates (down 8.3% to Rs 111), DLF (down 6.51% to Rs
345.45), Tata Motors (down 6.07% to Rs 350.65), Serlite Industries
(down 4.2% to Rs 428.40), State Bank of India (down 4.2% to Rs
1,374), Satyam Computer Services (down 4.07% to Rs 309), Reliance
Infrastructure (down 3.96% to Rs 816) edged lower from the Sensex
pack.

India's largest private sector bank in terms of net profit ICICI
Bank slumped 9.17% to Rs 509.80 on reports the bank has
mark-to-market loss of about Rs 309 crore due to its investment in
instruments of troubled US financial giants - Lehman Brothers and
AIG.

Consumer Durables stocks declined. Rajesh Exports (down 10.65% to
Rs 29.35), Videocon Industries (down 7.46% to Rs 198), Blue Star
(down 5.79% to Rs 292) edged lower.




India's fifth-largest software exporter by sales HCL Technologies
fell 6.97% to Rs 198.40. HCL Technologies fell 7.42% to Rs 197.15.
On Friday, 26 September 2008, launched an all-cash offer for
UK-based SAP implementation consultancy Axon. The offer trumped an
earlier bid by Infosys, India's second largest IT services provider
by sales.

HCL's all-cash offer at 650 pence a share is 8.3% higher than the
600-pence offer by Infosys, which has promised a further
announcement 'in due course'. Reports suggest that Infosys is
expected to disclose its future plans on Axon on Monday, 29
September 2008.

Aztecsoft surged 14.09% to Rs 51 after its board approved the
scheme of amalgamation of Aztecsoft with MindTree. The board
approved the swap ratio of 2 equity share of MindTree of Rs 10 each
for every 11 shares of Rs 3 each of Aztecsoft.