Market may slip after positive start

A special one-hour trading session to mark the beginning of the New Year Samvat year 2064 is being held today on the bourses. Trading will start at 18:00 IST and end at 19:00 IST. Post closing session will be from 19:10 IST to 19:30 IST.

Global cues are weak. Most of the European markets were in red. US stock index futures slid on Friday, 9 November 2007, as Wachovia Corp, the fourth-largest US bank, disclosed exposure to securities linked to subprime mortgages, heightening investor concern about the impact of the credit crisis. Asian markets ended mixed.

Muhurat trading is traditionally an occasion for an auspicious beginning to the traditional New Near. Investors place token orders and buy stocks for their children, which are held for the long term and sometimes never sold. Traders normally book their intra-day profits, however small they may be.

The wholesale price index rose 2.97% in the 12 months 27 October 2007, below the previous week's rise of 3.02% and its lowest in more than five years, government data released on Thursday, 8 November 2007 showed.

Most of the European markets were trading in red today. France’s CAC 40 (down 1.2% to 5,563.86) and UK’s FTSE 100( down 1.23% to 6,303.60) edged lower. Germany’s DAX (up 0.37% to 7,846.90) edged higher.

Asian markets ended mixed. Hang Seng (up 0.08% at 28,783.41, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 0.37% at 8,970.92), and South Korea's Seoul Composite (up 0.55% at 1,990.47) edged higher. Nikkei (down 1.19% at 15,583.42) and Singapore's Straits Times (down 2% at 3,599.67) edged lower.

US markets ended weak on Thursday, 8 November 2007 after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said a weak housing market and high oil prices would slow US growth in the fourth quarter and keep it sluggish in early 2008. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) lost 33.73 points to 13,266.29. Nasdaq Composite shed 52.76 points to 2,696.

National Stock exchange’s (NSE) provisional show that foreign institutional investors (FII) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 1,356.53 crore and domestic institutional investors (DII) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 283.32 crore on Thursday, 8 November 2007.

Samvat 2,063 had been an eventful year. Sensex galloped by a whopping 6,322 points. Though this is the biggest point move in a single year, it's not the highest in terms of percentage gains. The highest percentage gains record belongs to Samvat 2055 (1998-99), when the Sensex rallied 61% from 2,853 to 4,598. In Samvat 2,063 , the index appreciated 49.6% from the 12,736 points it had closed last Diwali. The markets though ended the year on a negative note as the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 230.90 points or 1.20% lower at 19058.93 and the broader S&P CNX Nifty was down 83.6 points or 1.45% at 5698.75 on Thursday, 8 November 2007.