POST MARKETING REPORT

SENSEX EYEYING 15000

The market settled at a new high, after staying strong throughout the day on continued buying interest. It rose for the fourth straight trading session today.

The market opened strong, tracking firm global equities. The sentiment was lifted by data on 29 June 2007 showing fall in inflation to a 14-month low. Banking, telecom, FMCG, and construction stocks led today's surge. All the sectoral indices on BSE settled with gains, except BSE Consumer Durables index.

The BSE 30-share Sensex gained 142.25 points,or 0.97%,to 14,806.51, an all-time closing high. The barometer index opened higher at 14,720 (also its low for the day) and surged to strike a record high of 14,828.39 at 15:06 IST as buying momentum intensified. It oscillated in a range of 108.39 points in the day.

The S&P CNX Nifty rose 43.80 points, or 1.02%, at 4,357.55, an all-time closing peak. It opened higher at 4,315.05 and surged to an all-time high of 4,363.35 in late-afternoon trade, surpassing its previous all-time high of 4,362.95 struck on 4 June 2007.

The Nifty July 2007 futures settled at 4354, a slight discount of 3.55 points compared to spot closing.

The market breadth was positive on BSE with 1,444 shares advancing as compared to 1,223 shares that declined, while 64 remained unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4,893 crore as against Rs 4,327.39 crore on Monday, 2 July 2007. NSE F&O turnover was Rs 33917.8 crore, as against Rs 34061.14 crore on Monday, 2 July 2007.

The BSE Mid-Cap Index settled 0.87% higher at 6,649, after striking an all-time high of 6,655.34, while the BSE Small-Cap Index rose 0.81% to 7,846.13

Among the Sensex pack, 20 advanced while the rest declined.

Telecom pivotals advanced on fresh buying, in anticipation that these companies would announce robust subscriber additions for the month of June 2007. Bharti Airtel surged 3.31% to Rs 865.05, on 3.77 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. Reliance Communications gained 1.30% to Rs 537.10.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever surged 2.91% to Rs 194.55, on 3.53 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. Other shares from the FMCG pack also edged higher on renewed buying. Britannia (up 1.48% to Rs 1598.25), ITC (up 1.49% to Rs 156.30), Tata Tea (up 0.80% to Rs 865), and Colgate Palmolive India (up 2.76% to Rs 382.30) advanced. The BSE FMCG Index rose 1.3% to 1,848.36. With inflation coming down to 4.03% levels, from a little over 6% in February 2007, the sector is expected to see higher sales.

BSE’s banking sectoral index Bankex surged the most among the sectoral indices on BSE. It rose 150.22 points, or 1.88%, to 8,140.70 on hopes that interest rates may soften due to lower inflation. The Bankex hit an all-time high of 8,176.33. Lower interest rate would lead to higher demand of funds from consumers.

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest commercial bank, advanced 3.03% to Rs 1,577.25. The scrip hit a high of Rs 1,590.95, which is a lifetime high for the counter. Nearly 10.01 lakh shares changed hands on the counter on BSE.

As per reports, SBI would soon enter seven new business streams including pension funds to tap emerging opportunities. The bank will float a subsidiary to manage pension funds under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) for government employees. The bank also proposes to launch financial planning and advisory services given the growing affluent class. This would be upgraded to wealth management at a later stage. In addition to the life insurance business, the bank, with its large branch network, is looking into the general insurance business.

Other banks ICICI Bank (up 1.50% to Rs 965), HDFC Bank (up 0.52% to Rs 1152), Bank of India (up 0.26% to Rs 228.20), UTI Bank (up 2.29% to Rs 621) edged higher. ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and HDFC bank have weightages of 40.36%, 17.12% and 13.83%, respectively, in the Bankex.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 1.26% to Rs 1,705.80 on 6.69 lakh shares. The Committee of Secretaries (CoS), which met on Monday 2 July 2007 to decide on the issue of gas pricing from RIL’s D6 fields in the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin, has asked the power and fertiliser ministries to present their views before the committee on 5 July 2007. No decision was taken in the meeting even as the petroleum ministry pitched for a market-determined price of gas produced from NELP blocks.

Engineering & construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) advanced 0.95% to Rs 2,256.20, on reports it had formed separate companies for power projects and shipbuilding businesses. The stock struck an all- time high of Rs 2,297.30 in intra-day trade today. The company may also unlock value in power and shipbuilding businesses after five years. Meanwhile, L&T expects Rs 1,000-crore revenue per annum from railway modernisation in three years.

State-run engineering major Bhel also rose 1.12% to Rs 1,550.20. The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 0.9% at 12,536.91.

Reliance Energy (REL) slipped 2.04% to Rs 611.55, on 2.05 lakh shares, and it was the top loser from the Sensex pack. REL’s wholly owned subsidiary Rosa Power Supply, on 26 June 2007, tied up long-term loans of around Rs 2,000 crore for the first stage of its 600 meg watt (MW) power project.

Auto stocks saw mixed trend today. The BSE Auto Index moved 0.40% higher to 4,803.31. Bajaj Auto declined 1.89% to Rs 2,089. Bajaj Auto's sales dipped 12% in June 2007 over June 2006. The announcement was made by the company on Sunday, 1 July 2007.

Hero Honda Motors declined 0.98% to Rs 684 after it reported an 8.4% decline in sales to 2.55 lakh units in June 2007. The announcement was made by the company after trading hours on Monday, 2 July 2007

Car major Maruti Udyog advanced 1.33% to Rs 781.50. Maruti said during trading hours on Monday, 2 July 2007, it had sold 59,917 vehicles in June 2007, up 24% from 48,425 vehicles sold in June 2006. Maruti Udyog sold 56,000 units in the domestic market, up 25.5% from 44,626 units in June 2006.

Tata Motors rose 0.59% to Rs 688.85 despite reporting a 2% fall in vehicle sales to 44,317 units in June 2007.

Housing finance major HDFC recovered sharply from its low of Rs 1968, but it still ended 0.53% lower at Rs 2,020.

ONGC slipped 1.11% to Rs 886.15 as it sharply cut gas reserve estimates at one of its blocks in the Krishna Godavari Basin. Reportedly, ONGC has sharply cut gas reserve estimates at one of its blocks in the Krishna Godavari Basin. The block is estimated to have 2.38 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of in-place gas reserves, much lower than its earlier estimate of 21 TCF.

IT stocks stayed subdued on lack of buying interest. They have not participated in the recent market rally on concerns of rupee appreciating further. A rise in rupee impacts margins of IT companies, as they derive a lion's share of revenue from exports.

Wipro (down 0.44% to Rs 511.10), Infosys (down 0.15% to Rs 1940.50), and TCS (down 0.85% to 1124.90) edged lower. Infosys Technologies will announce its first quarter June 2007 results on 11 July 2007. The rupee on Tuesday, 3 July 2007, touched its highest level in nearly one month at 40.56/57.

Akruti Nirman (up 20% to Rs 402.20), Berger Paints (up 15.85% to Rs 55.55), Nicco Corporation (up 9.90% to Rs 31.10), Indus Fila (up 13.65% to Rs 191.60), Paramount Communications (up 14.25% to Rs 38.45), and Swaraj Engines (up 11.47% to Rs 205.05) surged from the small-cap and mid-cap segments.

Shares from construction firms and property developers rallied in the belief that interest rates are near their peaks. Also there was momentum buying ahead of listing of realty major DLF, which debuts on the bourses on Thursday, 5 July 2007. The company had priced its IPO at Rs 525 per share. At Rs 525 per share, the IPO was priced 159 times its year ended March 2007 EPS of Rs 3.30. Each DLF share has a face value of Rs 2.

Ansal Infrastructures (up 12.28% to Rs 321), Unitech (up 3.44% to Rs 538.25), Madhucon Projects (up 5.47% to Rs 217), Parsvnath Developers (up 9.56% to Rs 381), and Sobha Developers (up 3.95% to Rs 968) edged higher. Indiabulls Real Estate jumped 2.90% to Rs 429 on 36.39 lakh shares.

Subhash Projects & Marketing hit the 5% upper circuit of Rs 260.05 on bagging an order worth Rs 267 crore from PHED, Jodhpur, Rajasthan for work related to supply of water from Jawai & Hemawas Dams (Pali district) to Pali town.

Textile firm Himatsingka Seide rose 3.01% to Rs 121.50 on acquiring an 80% stake in US-based Divatex Home Fashions Inc for $53 million. The enterprise value of the transaction is $75 million, it said. Divatex is among the top three distributors of bed linen products in the US. Divatex reported revenue of $151 million in the year ended December 2006 with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $14 million

Valecha Engineering jumped 7.85% to Rs 272 on its announcement that it will consider issue of bonus shares. The company's current equity is Rs 7.95 crore, with each share of a face value of Rs 10. The book value is Rs 203.80 per share

Patni Computer Systems rose 0.10% to Rs 514.65 on acquiring Europe-based Logan-Orviss International, a leading independent specialist telecommunications consulting services company. LOI ended with revenue of euro 11.8 million in 2006.

The next major trigger for the market is Q1 June 2007 result of IT bellwether Infosys on Wednesday, 11 July 2007. A Q1 results preview by Citigroup states that downward revision in EPS guidance for FY 2008 (year ending 31 March 2008) by Infosys cannot be ruled out given a surge in the rupee against the dollar in Q1 June 2007. Citigroup, however, expects an upward revision in revenue guidance in dollar terms from the IT bellwether.