Indian market soars; oil slide triggers buying interest

Tuesday, the Indian market soared as a sharp decline in the price of crude oil to near $105 a barrel eased inflation concerns. US crude oil fell to $107.17 a barrel by 5:07 a.m. EDT, down $8.29 from Friday's close on initial signs that a weakened Hurricane Gustav spared major US Gulf oil facilities.

It touched a session low of $105.46, its lowest since April 2. London Brent crude was down $3.46 at $105.95. A US public holiday on Monday meant the New York Mercantile Exchange did not issue an official settlement price. The Indian market opened higher this morning, but the gains were limited in early session as a subdued trend in the Asian markets weighed on sentiment. Subsequently, the market rallied as the price of oil probed new lows on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Stocks across the board witnessed fresh buying, while realty, banking and capital goods stocks led the rally. Oil marketing companies posted sharp gains following a retreat in the price of oil, while oil production/refinery companies ended down. After opening at 14.609, the BSE Sensex witnessed range bound trading in early session. The benchmark since then spurted to a day's high of 15,106, before paring some gains to finish at 15,050, up 552 points or 3.80% over Monday's close. The broad-based BSE 500 index rose 3.12%, the mid-cap index advanced 1.66% and the small-cap index added 1.32%. Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty ended at 4,504, up 3.57%. State Bank of India (up 7.44%), ICICI Bank (up 7.34%), DLF India (up 7.14%), ONGC (up 6.97%), Jaiprakash Associates (up 6.83%), Reliance Infrastructure (up 5.99%), Maruti Suzuki (up 4.84%), HDFC (up 4.66%), Larsen & Toubro (up 4.66%), TCS (up 4.23%), ACC (up 4.17%), Reliance Communication (up 4.15%), Wipro (up 3.99%), BHEL (up 3.68%)and HDFC Bank (up 3.50%) were among the major gainers. On the BSE, market breadth was extremely positive, with 1675 stocks gaining compared to 986 stocks that declined. Twenty-eight out of 30 Sensex stocks ended in positive territory. Ranbaxy Laboratories and Tata Motors are the only two stocks that declined. Stocks in news Cement makers ACC rose 4.17%, Ambuja Cements added 1.62%, JK Lakshmi Cement advanced 1.92% and Ultratech gained 1.74% after the companies reportedly raised cement prices in Mumbai by Rs.3 per 50 kilogram bag. Hero Honda Motors closed up 0.94% after the company reported a 26.84% jump in its domestic two-wheeler sales in August compared to same month last year. Great Offshore soared 7.69% after the company forayed into port management and single point mooring operations through acquisition of full stake in two domestic companies. State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur advanced 5.0% after the company fixed record date for its proposed stock-split proposal. Reliance Industries added 3.41% following reports the company dropped its plans to acquire the polyester manufacturing unit of an US-based polyester maker Unifi, in which it planned to invest about $250 million. Kinetic Motor rose 3.98% after the company's board of directors approved an investment of Rs.29.5 crore in Mahindra Two Wheelers, its joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra. Valecha Engineering gained 4.20% after the company's board of directors fixed record date for a bonus issue to its shareholders. Tata Motors declined 1.82% after the company announced a rights issue in the ratio of 1: 6 to its shareholders. The company would raise Rs.4150 crore through two rights issues that are expected to open by the end of September. Bosch declined 2.96% to Rs.4048 after the company's board of directors agreed to buyback shares at a price not exceeding Rs.4500 per share. Archies rose 1.82% after the company secured an exclusive tie up with UK's leading brand 'Carte Blanche' to distribute and sell its renowned brand 'Me to you' in India. Copyright(c) 2008 RealTimeTraders.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved