Benchmark indices end lower but midcap, smallcap up 6-9 per cent

20 May 2009

The benchmark indices retreated on the back of profit booking in telecom, oil & gas and private financial stocks. It was a small correction as compared to gains seen on Monday. But it was a party time for the broader indices, which continued gains for the third consecutive day; BSE Midcap Index was up 6% and Smallcap Index shot up 9%. This upsurge in midcaps and smallcaps strengthened the market breadth to 11:1 on the NSE.

Midcap and smallcap stocks were doing catch up after recent rally in largecap stocks, as local players were very active in midcaps. Local brokerages were asking clients to hold on their midcap positions, as they expect broader markets to relatively outperform.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped below the 14,000 mark and touched an intraday low of 13,976.49, before closing the day 241.37 points or 1.69% lower at 14,060.66. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped below 4300 level and touched a low of 4244.70; it ended at 4270.30, down 1.11% or 48.15 points.

Biggest contributors in today's sell-off were from Bharti Airtel, BHEL, ICICI Bank, HDFC, DLF and Reliance Capital, which plunged 6-7%. Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum, ITC, Reliance Communication, HDFC Bank and Infosys declined 2-3.5%.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index was up 265.95 points or 6.03%, to settle at 4,673.77 and the Smallcap Index surged 8.86% or 424.04 points, to 5,208.18.

In the midcap space, Kingfisher Airlines shot up 27.36% and HCC gained 24.06%. Tulip Telecom, Future Capital, Omaxe, Simplex Infra and Parsvnath went up 19-21%.

More than 35 stocks ended over 19% in the smallcap Index. Everonn Systems was up 26.31% and Firstsource Solutions gained 22.81%. Nagarjuna Fertilisers, Bharati Shipyard, Transformers, JBF Industries, Himatsingka Seide, Ruby Mills, Prime Focus, UB Holdings, Indian Hume Pipe, Arshiya Intl, Hercules Hoists, Shriram EPC, Unity Infraprojects and Electrotherm went up 20-21%.