Market may advance

The market is likely to advance tracking strong US markets. The US stocks rallied smartly on Monday, 14 January 2008 following better-than-expected results from IBM. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 171.85 points, or 1.36%, to 12,778.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shot up 15.23 points, or 1.09%, to 1,416.25 and the Nasdaq Composite index advanced 38.36 points, or 1.57%, to 2,478.30.

Asian markets were trading mixed today, 15 January 2008. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (up 0.31% at 26,549.03), Japan's Nikkei (up 0.48% at 14,178.59), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 3.81% at 8,484.68) edged higher. However, South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 1.65% to 1,736.67) and Shanghai Composite (down 0.81% to 5,453.42) slipped.

However there might be some liquidity drain from the secondary market as action might shift to primary market as the mega initial public offer (IPO ) of Reliance Power opens for subscription today, 15 January 2008. The IPO ends on 18 January 2008. Meanwhile as per reports, state-owned telcom services provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) on Monday, 14 January 2008 said it plans to launch India’s biggest initial public offer to raise about Rs 40,000 crore (over $10 billion).

The 30-share BSE Sensex lost 99.40 points or 0.48% to 20728.05, on Monday, 14 January 2008. The broader CNX S&P Nifty rose 6.70 points or 0.11% at 6206.80 on that day.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 257.66 crore on Monday, 14 January 2008. FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,103.20 crore in the futures & options segment on that day. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 366.54 crore and bought index options worth Rs 53.67 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 811.84 crore and bought stock options worth Rs 21.51 crore.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 193.55 crore on Monday, 14 January 2008.