Market may edge lower

The market may edge lower tracking weak US markets. US stocks declined sharply on Friday, 11 January 2008 on a warning by American Express of mounting credit-card defaults and a slowdown in consumer spending. Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 246.79 points, or 1.92%, at 12,606.30, Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 19.31 points, or 1.36%, to 1,401.02 and Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 48.58 points, or 1.95%, at 2,439.94.

Asian markets were trading mixed today, 14 January 2008. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (down 0.12% at 26,836.09), South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 0.91% at 1,766.02) declined. However, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 1.65% at 8,162.12) and China’s Shanghai Composite (up 0.11% to 5,490.50), rose

Infrastructure Development Finance Company and CMC among others will declare their December 2007 quarterly results today.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose 245.37 points or 1.19% to 20,827.45 on Friday 11 January 2008. The broader S&P CNX Nifty rose 43.15 points or 0.7% to 6,200.10 on that day

The two key indices, BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty witnessed a divergent trend last week. While Sensex rose, Nifty declined. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 140.56 points or 0.67% to 20,827.45 in the week ended Friday, 11 January 2008. The S&P CNX Nifty declined 74.20 points or 1.18% to 6,200.10 in the week.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 107.40 crore on Friday, 11 January 2008. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 1.92 crore on that day.

FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 463.45 crore in the futures & options segment on Friday, 11 January 2008. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 776.64 crore and bought index options worth Rs 327.01 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 13.26 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 0.56 crore.

Meanwhile, Industrial output rose 5.3% in November 2007 from a year earlier, well below market expectations and sharply lower than an upwardly revised annual growth of 12% in October 2007, data released on Friday, 11 January 2008, showed. Manufacturing production rose 5.4% in November 2007 from a year earlier, compared with a provisional annual growth of 13.3% in October 2007.

Annual inflation, based on the wholesale price index (WPI), remained unchanged at 3.5% in the week ended 29 December 2007 compared with the week ended 22 December 2007, as per data released on Friday, 11 January 2008. WPI was 5.89% in the corresponding week of the previous year.