“Lower inflation coupled with attractive valuations have certainly helped the mood of the market. These kind of bounces are normal in a bear market when the market is trading at such low levels,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of the capital markets arm and director of India’s fourth largest share brokerage firm, the Delhi-based SMC Group.

1. Sensex crosses 10k mark as inflation falls
Falling rate of inflation Thursday boosted investors’ confidence in equities markets, pushing a
key index up 3.72 percent to close above 10,000 points
IANS
Posted On Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 09:16:11 PM
Mumbai: Falling rate of inflation Thursday boosted investors’ confidence in equities markets, pushing a
key index up 3.72 percent to close above 10,000 points.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) rose 361.14 points or 3.72
per cent from Wednesday’s 9,715.29 points to close at 10,076.43 points.
Earlier in the day, government data showed that India’s annual rate of inflation dropped further to 6.84 per
cent for the week ended Dec 6 from 8 per cent the week before.
“Lower inflation coupled with attractive valuations have certainly helped the mood of the market. These
kind of bounces are normal in a bear market when the market is trading at such low levels,” said
Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of the capital markets arm and director of India’s fourth largest share
brokerage firm, the Delhi-based SMC Group.
The broader-based 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also followed a
similar trend to close at 3,060.75 points, up 106.4 points or 3.6 percent from its previous close of 2,954.35
points.
Broader market indices were, however, a bit slower to rise with the midcap index trading 2.18 per cent
higher, while the smallcap index rose only by 0.91 per cent over its previous close.
All 13 sectoral indices turned positive with realty and banking stocks doing particularly well. The BSE
realty index rose 7.27 per cent, while the banking index rose 7.06 per cent.
Among top gainers in the Sensex were DLF (up 9.56 per cent to close at Rs 253.2), Jaiprakash
Associates (up 9.36 per cent at Rs 76.95) and Reliance Infrastructure (up 9.32 per cent at Rs.549.15).
Top losers in the Sensex were Grasim Industries (down 0.33 per cent to close at Rs 1,234.4) and Sterlite
Industries (down 0.11 per cent at Rs 271.2).
Analysts are still keeping their fingers crossed although the Sensex moved past the 10,000-mark. “It will
be too premature to conclude that we are out of a bear market even though the equity markets are in an
up-trend,” added Thunuguntla.