MARKET COMMENTARY FOR THE DAY 25 JUNE 2010

As I write this, my heart aches to learn that a country has to sell a part of its land in order to repay debts. Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous debts.

The Sensex closed at 17574.53, down by 155.71 points and the Nifty rested at 5269.05, down by 51.55 points. The top three gainers were BPCL, ONGC and RCom which rose by 12.7 per cent, 6.23 per cent and 2.26 per cent respectively. The top three losers were Sterlite, ICICI Bank and Wipro which shed 3.42 per cent, 3.29 per cent and 3.22 per cent respectively.

At the time of writing this commentary, the Dow was trading at 10122.10, down by 30.68 points due to economic and credit market concerns and perhaps, may be the bulls just need some rest. The FTSE 100 in Britain, the CAC 40 in France and Germany's DAX all posted losses. Asian shares finished the session in negative territory. Japan's benchmark Nikkei index tumbled 1.92% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dipped 0.21%. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.5%.

As is known, a trade with a minimum quantity of 500,000 shares or a minimum value of Rs 5 crore executed through a single transaction on the special window qualifies as a block deal and needs to be disclosed to SEBI on a daily basis irrespective of the fact whether deal relates to “client” or “own” account.

Some of the bulk deals transacted at the Indian bourses on June 24 were as under :

• ING Bank NV - Singapore Branch sold 10,675,028 shares at Rs 750.7 a share of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
• The Royal Bank Of Scotland N.V. bought 2,800,000 shares at Rs 70.75 a share of Nirlon.
• Credit Suisse First Boston (Singapore) sold 1,283,000 shares at Rs 46.54 a share of Mercator Lines.
• Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius bought 475,000 shares at Rs 65.39 a share of Eveready Industries.
• In corporate news, Edelweiss Capitals’ board has approved a stock split in the ratio of 5:1 and bonus in the ratio of 1:1.

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) today announced that it has bagged an order worth Rs 4.31 billion from Himchal Pradesh Power Corporation of India. The order work includes execution of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract package for 100 MW (civil and hydro-mechanical works) Sainj Hydroelectric Project in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh.The project is to be completed in 48 calendar months.

As I sign off , please join me in wishing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team bon-voyage and hope the G-20 Summit at Toronto helps our country to strengthen political, economic and social ties with Canada.

Wishing you all a Happy weekend. Enjoy the weekend, enjoy the rains and hope the week ahead brings you lots of gains.

Kishor S. Khot, [Kishor@hbjcapital.com], Equity Strategist, HBJ Capital Services Pvt Ltd