Market to stay sideways

The market is expected to stay side ways on mixed global cues. US markets declined yesterday, 27 March 2008 while Asian markets opened higher today, 28 March 2008.

Lower rollovers from March 2008 series to April 2008 series were witnessed yesterday, 28 March 2008, when derivative contracts for March 2008 series expired. As per reports, the marketwide rollover of derivative positions series stood at 79% as compared to 84% in March 2008 series from February 2008. Similarly Nifty rollover stood at 63% as against 75% during in March 2008 series from February 2008.

However year-end net asset value (NAV) boosting exercise from local mutual funds may prevent steep losses.

The sharp rise in inflation has been a cause of concern, which has now risen above the Reserve Bank of India’s caution limit of 5%. As per data released on Thursday, 20 March 2008, inflation had surged to over 11-month high of 5.92% for the week ended 8 March 2008

Marketmen are keenly awaiting Q4 and full year March 2008 results from Indian corporates. Robust corporate advance tax payments in Q4 March 2008 indicate that corporate profit growth will be strong in the quarter. Advance tax figures showed banks, hospitality and software firms are doing better than sectors like automobiles and cement.

Asian markets were trading firm today, 29 March 2008. Hang Seng (up 1.27% at 22,951.40), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 0.34% at 8,635.17), Singapore's Straits Times (up 0.20% at 3,031.24), South Korea's Seoul Composite (up 1.07% at 1,694.13) and Japan's Nikkei (up 1.89% to 12,843.37) advanced

US markets dropped yesterday, 28 March 2008, on the back of oracle's weak sales outlook. Concerns about financial companies also continued. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 120.40 points, or 0.97%, to 12,302.46. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 15.37 points, or 1.15%, to 1,325.76, and the Nasdaq Composite index was down 43.53 points, or 1.87%, to 2,280.83.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 71.27 points or 0.44% at 16,015.56 yesterday, 28 March 2008. The broader CNX S&P Nifty rose 1.40 points or 0.03% at 4830.25 on that day.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 247.98 crore on Thursday, 27 March 2008. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 339.84 crore on that day.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 270.74 crore in the futures & options segment on Thursday, 28 March 2008. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 813.48 crore and bought index options worth Rs 1,198.92 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 104.15 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 10.55 crore.

US oil futures fell $1.23 a barrel to $106.35 a barrel,as traders wary over the U.S. economic outlook took profits from a three-day rally.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex Futures will start trading on the US Futures Exchange (USFE) from 4 April 2008. It will be the first Asian index futures to go live on the US exchange. The -dollar denominated futures contracts will trade 23 hours a day on the USFE, and will have a notional value of 40,000 index units and the minimum price change would be $5