Pre Open Market Commentary

The Indian market today is likely to have a negative opening, as the cues from the global markets are not in favor. On Friday, the Indian market closed on a strong note led by heavy buying across all the index heavyweights. The market opened firmly and keeps on marching forward throughout the trading session but pares some of its gains towards the end of the session. The Inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) rose to 3.50% for the week ended 22 December 2007 as compared to 3.45% in the week ended 15 December 2007. The BSE Sensex closed higher by 341.69 points at 20,686.39 and NSE Nifty closed up by 95.75 points at 6,274.30. We expect that the market may remain cautious during the trading session.

On Friday, the US market closed in red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 256.46 points at 12,800.26. Nasdaq fell by 98.03 points to close at 2,504.65 and S&P 500 index slipped by 35.53 points to close at 1,411.63

Indian ADRS closed in negative. In technology sector, Wipro declined by 5.86% along with Satyam by 5.43%, Infosys by 4.06% and Patni Computers by 3.51%. In banking sector, HDFC bank and ICICI bank fell by (5.33%) and (1.34%). VSNL and MTNL dropped by (4.65%) and (3.67%) respectively.

The major stock markets in Asia are trading weak. Hang Seng is trading lower by 720.60 points at 26,799.09. Taiwan Weighted declined by 270.19 points to trade at 7,950.91. Japan''s Nikkei slipped by 147.29 points to trade at 14,544.12.

On Friday, the FIIs stood as net buyer both in equity and debt. The gross equity purchased was Rs6,007.10 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs390.90 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs5,281.90 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs3 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was Rs725.10 Crore and net debt was Rs387.90Crore.

Today, Nifty has support at 6,159 and resistance at 6,329 and BSE Sensex has support at 20,231 and resistance at 20,853.