Market slips into red after firm start; breadth positive

Extending Friday's (19 September 2008) solid surge, the key
benchmark indices opened higher. However, profit booking at higher
level pulled the indices in the red within few minutes of opening.

The market slipped as crude oil price breached $100 mark once
again, raising fears of inflationary pressures in the economy. Auto
banking and realty shares witnessed selling pressure. Shares of the
state-run oil refiners declined on high oil prices.

Stocks rose in Asia on hopes for a $700 billion bank bailout
proposed by the United States over the weekend to tackle the US
financial crisis. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, China,
South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were up by between 0.24% to 6.4%.

According to the US administration's proposal, the federal
government would buy up as much as $700 billion of illiquid
mortgage assets at a deep discount from banks. The Treasury
Department would run the program directly, unlike the savings and
loan crisis of the 1990s when Congress created the Resolution Trust
Company to spearhead a financial bailout. The $700 billion plan,
the most sweeping intervention in the financial markets since the
Great Depression, is aimed at stemming the credit crisis roiling
Wall Street and threatening the global markets.

Back home, the current week will see expiry of September 2008
derivatives contracts. The September 2008 contracts expire on
Thursday, 25 September 2008. Roll over in Nifty futures till
Friday, 19 September 2008, was about 18% whereas Mini Nifty has
seen rollover of about 31% of positions.

At 10:20 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 15.92 points or
1.11% to 14,026.40. The index shed 27.05 points at the day's low of
14,015.27, hit in early trade. The Sensex rose 178.72 points at
day's high of 14,221.04, hit in early trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty was down 3.80 points or 0.09% to 4241.45.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.56% at 5,258.30 and the BSE
Small-Cap index was down 0.49% at 6,246.68.

The market breadth was positive on BSE with 982 shares advancing as
compared to 616 that declined. 52 shares remained unchanged.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and
oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 1.28% at Rs 2078.10. The
company began production of crude oil from its KG-D6 block of the
Krishna Godavari basin on 17 September 2008 and the firm plans to
commercially release gas from the well by January 2009. The company
aims to supply at least 40% of the nation's requirement of oil and
gas and become one of the world's largest deep-water developers.
According to reports, the company can technically sell its
Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin gas at a price higher than the
government-discovered price of $4.20 per million British thermal
units (mBtu).

India's second largest software exporter by sales Infosys
Technologies rose 0.13% at Rs 1626.

India's largest private sector bank by market capitalisation ICICI
Bank fell 0.60% at Rs 624.30.

Reliance Infrastructure (up 1.74% at Rs 906), ACC (up 1.31% at Rs
612.95), Tata Steel (up 1.19% at Rs 485.30), HDFC Bank (up 0.82% at
Rs 1309.85), Tata Power Company (up 0.85% at Rs 1036), Housing
Development Finance Corporation (up 0.77% at Rs 2325.60), edged
higher from the Sensex pack.

ONGC (down 2.15% at Rs 1049), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 1.64% at
Rs 350), Maruti Suzuki (down 1.64% at Rs 351), Mahindra & Mahindra
(down 1.24% at Rs 547.10), Wipro (down 0.44% at Rs 415), Grasim
Induatries (down 0.49% at Rs 1908), edged lower from the Sensex
pack.

Shares of the state-run oil refiners declined on rise in oil
prices. BPCL (down 2.89% at Rs 336.05), HPCL (down 2.43% at Rs
229.05) and Indian Oil Corporation (down 1.59% at Rs 390.35),
slipped. Private sector oil explorer Cairn India rose 1.99% at Rs
225.70, and private sector oil refiner Reliance Petroleum rose
3.05% at Rs 155.50.

At 10:21 IST, the crude oil for October 2008 delivery was at $
104.73 a barrel

As per provisional data released by the stock exchanges, foreign
funds bought shares worth a net Rs 1016.18 crore on Friday, 19
September 2008. Domestic funds bought shares worth a net Rs 43.91
crore. The BSE 30-share Sensex jumped 726.72 points or 5.46% to
14,042.32 on Friday, 19 September 2008.

Foreign funds pressed sales worth a net Rs 7594.40 crore this month
(till 18 September 2008). Their cumulative outflow in calendar 2008
reached Rs 36108.20 crore.