The market saw a complete trend reversal today. It was firm in first half of the day, but turned weak in the second half as profit booking emerged at higher level. It also turned volatile since mid-afternoon trade. There was lack of support from global markets which were mixed today. Auto and IT shares saw buying while cement and banking shares were offloaded.

The BSE 30-share Sensex lost 35.85 points or 0.24% at 15,009.88. It opened higher at 15,100.13 and surged to strike an all-time high of 15,114.95 at 10:34 IST, a gain of 69.22 points for the day. It slipped to a low of 14,966.40 at 15:01 IST, a fall of 79.33 points for the day.

The S&P CNX Nifty was down 13.35 points or 0.30% at 4,406.05, after striking an all time high of 4434.45. The Nifty July 2007 futures settled at 4392, at a discount of 14.05 points to spot closing.

The market breadth which was positive till afternoon trade, turned negative later as profit booking emerged in small and mid-cap stocks. On BSE, 1,489 shares declined as compared to 1,188 that advanced, while 66 remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.27% to 6,665.60, after hitting an all-time high of 6,726.09 earlier during the day. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.13% to 8,009.66, after striking an all-time high of 8,089.73 earlier during the day.

The total turnover on BSE was Rs 5,024 crore as against Rs 5508.50 crore on Monday, 9 July 2007.

The NSE F&O turnover was Rs 32,720.71 crore as compared to Rs 27570.89 crore on Monday, 9 July 2007.

Among the Sensex pack, 17 declined while the rest advanced.

Auto shares rallied on hopes that interest rates will not go up in near future. The BSE Auto Index gained 1.16% to 4,945.84, and was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on BSE. Auto companies derive 50-75% sales from loan funds. All the top 3 gainers from the Sensex pack were auto counters.

Auto major Tata Motors surged 3.44% to Rs 740.30 on 5.26 lakh shares, and was the top gainer from Sensex pack. As per reports, the company may unlock value of its profit making subsidiaries through initial public offerings. Tata Motors has around 30 subsidiaries most of them created through demergers of the various divisions that the company once had.

Other auto stocks Maruti Udyog (up 2.63% to Rs 815) and Bajaj Auto (up 1.41% to Rs 2135) also edged higher.

IT stocks saw continued buying support. Market men reckon that the under-performance of IT stocks in recent months provides a good buying opportunity due to strong core fundamentals of the sector.

Satyam Computers (up 1% to Rs 496.35), Infosys Technologies (up 1.20% to Rs 2,017), TCS (up 1.31% to Rs 1192), edged higher. However Wipro lost 0.62% to Rs 522. The BSE IT Index gained 0.8% at 5,036.99.

Infosys Technologies declares its results on Wednesday, 11 July 2007. Market men expect Infosys to revise downwards its rupee EPS guidance for FY 2008 to factor in the impact of the rupee’s rise against the US dollar. Most analysts, however, expect Infosys to maintain its EPS guidance in dollar terms as they expect Infosys to raise revenue guidance by the company in dollar terms. Merrill Lynch, however, expects Infosys to cut FY 2008 EPS guidance in both dollar and Indian rupee term due to rupee’s sharp surge.

Infosys had guided a 20% to 22% growth in EPS in FY 2008 and a higher 25.7% to 27.7% growth in EPS in dollar terms at the time of announcing FY 2007 results. It had guided 28% to 30% revenue growth in dollar terms and 22.6% to 24.6% revenue growth in rupee terms for FY 2008.

The rupee inched towards a nine-year high on Tuesday, 10 July 2007, as investors adjusted positions in anticipation of strong capital flows. In early trade, the rupee was at 40.39/40 per dollar, up from Monday's 40.425/44, and in sight of a nine-year peak of 40.28 hit in late May 2007.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down 0.60% to Rs 1700.80, on 2.51 lakh shares. The stock slipped today ahead of the Bombay High Court's final verdict on the allocation of gas from RIL's D-6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, on 12 July 2007. RIL is set to start production from the block in June 2008, with around 26 million cubic metres a day (mcmd) and ramp it up to a peak of 80 mcmd by mid-2009.

Earlier on 20 June 2007, the court passed an interim order, which restricted RIL from selling gas from the D-6 block to any buyer other than Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) and NTPC for a period of eight years.

RNRL galloped to 52-week high of Rs 41, up 8.32% for the day, on high volumes of 1.83 crore shares.

Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel was the top loser from the Sensex pack. The stock shed 1.76% to Rs 868, on 1.95 lakh shares. Reliance Communications shed 1.50% to Rs 544.05.

Banking shares came under selling pressure. State Bank of India (down 1.67% to Rs 1545), and ICICI Bank (down 0.91% to Rs 964.45), edged lower.

HDFC Bank lost 1.59% to Rs 1149.50 despite reporting 34.24% rise in net profit in Q1 June 2007 to Rs 321.23 crore as against Rs 239.30 crore in Q1 June 2006. Total operating income rose 41.32% to Rs 2125.88 crore (Rs 1504.29 crore). The results were announced during the market hours today 10 July 2007. The BSE Bankex lost 0.92% at 8,104.09.

Ambuja Cements declined 0.91% to Rs 130.80 while ACC slipped 1.08% to Rs 1035.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) declined 1.43% to Rs 2,381.20 despite winning a Rs 542-crore order from Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL).

State run engineering major Bhel slipped 0.38% to Rs 1569. The BSE Capital Goods Index was down 1.1% at 12,760.17.

Hero Honda Motors dropped 2.55% to Rs 669, after it went ex-dividend (for a liberal dividned of Rs 17 per share).

Kothari Products (up 20% to Rs 803.85), Info Edge (up 20% to Rs 948.35), Orbit Corporation (up 13.29% to Rs 230), Ankur Drugs (up 10% to Rs 428.60), and Accentia Technologies (up 10% to Rs 145.50), surged from small-cap and mid-cap pack.

Ankit Metal & Power settled at a premium of 2.63% at Rs 36.95 on BSE on its debut on the bourses today compared to the IPO price of Rs 36. 1.72 crore shares were traded on the counter on BSE. The stock debuted at Rs 37.90 on BSE, touched a high of Rs 38.40 and a low of Rs 36.50, during the day

The BSE Realty Index – an index tracking shares of property developers which was launched by BSE today, 10 July 2007, surged on its debut. The index rose 0.59% to 7,377.53, after striking a high of 7,447.75. The BSE Realty Index comprises of 11 listed firms, representing about 95% market capitalisation of real estate development companies which are part of the BSE-500 index.

Recently listed realty giant DLF has the highest weightage of 35.94% in the BSE Realty Index. Unitech is another heavyweight in the index, with a 31.57% weightage.

Unitech (up 0.12% to Rs 526.10), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 5.25% to Rs 471.95), Parsvnath Developers (up 0.50% to Rs 374.30) and Ansal Properties & Infrastructure (up 1.10% to Rs 308.80) advanced from the realty pack. However DLF slipped 0.65% to Rs 570.25

HEG jumped 11.24% to Rs 230.65 after the graphite electrode maker said it plans to sell its steel division based in Chhattisgarh state to Jai Balaji Industries. HEG's board would meet on 18 July 2007 to consider the sale.

Arvind Mills spurted 10% to Rs 51 on market talk of the company selling surplus land near Ahmedabad, Gujarat. As per media reports, Reliance Retail is in talks with the company for its Santej land in Ahmedabad. Arvind holds almost 750 acres of land at Santej, located just 20 km away from Ahmedabad city.

Tulip IT Services rose 1% to Rs 804.90 on obtaining international long distance license from the Department of Telecom.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation declined 2% to Rs 261.70. It made a maiden discovery of oil in exploration block in Cambay, Ahmedabad. HPCL made the announcement after trading hours on Monday, 9 July 2007. An HPCL statement said the discovery appears to be part of a large structure that may have significant reserves and needs to be appraised and delineated further through exploratory drilling. The production rate may further improve after well stimulation.

GMR Infrastructure galloped 6.24% to Rs 791.50 on media reports that the company in consortium with Malaysia Airport Holdings and Turkey's Limak won the rights to build Istanbul's second airport. The consortium will build a new international terminal at the Sabiha Gokcen airport on Istanbul's Asian side and run the airport for 20 years. The winning bid does not include 18% value added tax.

Ahluwalia Contracts India vaulted 6% to Rs 455 on bagging four new civil construction projects worth Rs 130 crore in June 2007.

Asian indices were trading mixed today, 10 July 2007, with Japan's Nikkei 225 declining on banking stocks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, while South Korea's Kospi and Singapore's Straits Times Index touched intra-day record highs. Nikkei slipped 0.16% to 18,232.90. Shanghai Composite was down 0.78% to 3,853.21

However, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 0.16% to 9,384.73), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (up 0.30% at 22,885.84), and South Korea's Seoul Composite (up 0.58% at 1,894.53) edged higher.

European indices were mixed.

Wall Street edged higher in an erratic session on Monday, 10 July 2007, as investors were reassured by a drop in treasury bond yields. The Dow Jones industrials rose 38.29 points, or 0.28%, to 13,649.97. Broader market indexes also moved higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.41 points, or 0.09%, to 1,531.85, and the Nasdaq Composite index added 3.51 points, or 0.13%, to 2,670.02.

Brent crude oil eased on Tuesday, 10 July 2007 after a seven-day rally lifted prices to their highest in 11 months. London Brent crude fell 31 cents to $75.47 a barrel. US crude inched down 7 cents to $72.12 a barrel.