New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September 2008 delivery slumped $2.54 to $122.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, 29 July 2008.
US stocks surged overnight, benefiting from a steep drop in oil prices and an unexpected rise in US consumer confidence after Merrill Lynch's announcement of yet another write-down and capital-raising exercise, raising hopes that the turning point in the year-long credit crisis was close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 266.48 points, or 2.39 per cent, at 11,397.56, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 28.82 points, or 2.33 per cent, at 1,263.19 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 55.40 points, or 2.45 per cent, at 2,319.62.
Asian markets were trading higher today, 30 July 2008. China's Shanghai Composite, Japan's Nikkei, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted, Singapore's Straits Times and South Korea's Seoul Composite were up by between 0.55% to 2.06%.
At 10:23 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 291.55 points or 2.11% at 14,082.97. The index gained 305.06 points at the day’s high of 14,096.60, hit in early trade.
The broader based S&P CNX Nifty up 69.65 points or 1.66% at 4,259.50.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was rose 1.68% to 5,580.65 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.31% to 6,920.71.
The market breadth was strong on BSE with 1,161 shares advancing as compared to 290 that declined. 26 remained unchanged.
India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 2.01% to Rs 2,127.10.
Bank stocks recovered from Tuesday's steep fall caused by further monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of India at its quarterly policy review. HDFC Bank (up 5.84% to Rs 1,089), ICICI Bank (up 3.77% to Rs 630.30) and State Bank of India (up 1.82% to Rs 1,345.60) edged higher.
Reliance Infrastructure (up 3.73% to Rs 942), Tata Steel (up 3.47% to Rs 604.60), Jaiprakash Associates (up 3.42% to Rs 156.70), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 2.82% to Rs 1,636), Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 2.57% to Rs 487) were major gainers from Sensex pack.
India’s largest motorbike maker by sales Hero Honda Motor rose 3.38% to Rs 761. On Tuesday, the company reported 44% surge in profit after tax to Rs 272.87 crore on 16% growth in turnover to Rs 2890.25 crore.
Power generation major NTPC fell 3.03% to Rs 173.05. On Tuesday, 29 July 2008, NTPC reported 27.1% fall in net to Rs 1726.53 crore on 5.87% growth in total income to Rs 10256.70 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007.
Cairn India fell 1.62% to Rs 224.50. It has reported consolidated net profit of Rs 138.58 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 compared to net loss of Rs 71.44 crore in the quarter ended June 2007. Total income rose 65.71% to Rs 461.43 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 over the quarter ended June 2007.
Punj Lloyd surged 6.13% to Rs 25.25. It has reported 88% growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 111.85 crore on 87.4% growth in total income to Rs 2658.16 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007. The company said its current order book stands at a robust Rs 21162 crore.
Jet Airways rose 5.37% to Rs 457. Jet Airways’ net profit jumped 364.31% to Rs 143.38 crore on 46.1% growth in total income to Rs 2899.15 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007. The strong Q1 result was due to one-time benefit in the form of reversal in the prior period excess depreciation of Rs 916 crore.
Ashok Leyland was flat at Rs 28.15. Ashok Leyland’s net profit declined 42.66% to Rs 50.56 crore on 16.4% growth in total income to Rs 1896.02 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007.
Omaxe rose 1.56% to Rs 117.40. Realty firm Omaxe’s consolidated net profit fell 22.7% to Rs 56.66 crore on 3.4% growth in total income to Rs 354.38 crore in the quarter ended 308 June 2008 over the quarter ended June 2007.
GVK Power & Infrastructure rose 3.93% to Rs 39.70. GVK Power & Infrastructure’s consolidated net profit rose 207.8% to Rs 40.55 crore on 38.8% growth in total income to Rs 141.37 crore in the quarter ended 308 June 2008 over the quarter ended June 2007. IT and research and development services firm MindTree said on Tuesday it has completed the open offer to acquire equity stake in Aztecsoft. The company said it now holds 79.9% in Aztecsoft.
MindTree rose 2.14% to Rs 368. MindTree said on Tuesday, it will soon commence the process of merging Aztecsoft with the company. The board of directors of New Delhi Television (NDTV) has approved setting up of a new company for building infrastructure in the form of studio, production facilities etc. wherein offshore subsidiaries of NDTV will invest up to $ 50 million as cumulative convertible preference shares or any other instrument as deemed appropriate.
In the near term, the market the market may remain volatile ahead of expiry of futures & options contracts for July 2008 series on Thursday, 31 July 2008. As per reports, marketwide rollover of positions from July 2008 series to August 2008 series stood at 44%, while that of Nifty was 48%, as of Tuesday 29 July 2008.
As per the provisional figures foreign institutional investors (FII)'s sold shares worth Rs 538.27 crore while domestic funds sold shares worth Rs 254.59 crore yesterday 29 July 2008.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Rs 1939.47 crore in the futures & options segment on 28 July 2008. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 1166.31 crore and bought index options worth Rs 81.46 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 883.85 crore and purchased stock options worth Rs 29.22 crore.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) yesterday 29 July 2008, raised repo rate by 50 basis points to a seven-year high of 9% to curb inflation, now running close to 12%, and dampen inflationary expectations. The RBI also raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR), the proportion of funds that banks must keep on deposit with it, by 25 basis points to 9%. The central bank left its reverse repo and bank rates unchanged. The tone of the monetary policy was extremely hawkish.