Pre Market Watch - March 18 2008

The Indian Market is likely to have a positive opening today due to due to favoring cues from the global market. On Monday, the Indian market tumbled and faced bloodbath during the trading session. The fall was on the back of US Federal Reserve emergency step to cut in its discount rate by 25 basis point ignited the concerns of more global credit crisis. This fall is one of the worst in the history of the Indian stock market as the Sensex lost more than 6% in a single day and the NSE Nifty fell below the 4500 mark to lose more than 5% on a particular day. The BSE Sensex declined by 951.03 points to close at 14,809.49 and NSE Nifty fell by 242.7 points to close at 4,503.10. We expect that the market may remain choppy during the trading session.

The US Federal Reserve has cut its discount rate by 25 basis point to 3.25% from 3.5% earlier and this will be effective immediately. The Federal Reserve also extended the term of discount-window loans to 90 days from the 30 days.

On Monday, the US market closed mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed higher by 21.16 points at 11,972.25. The S&P 500 (SPX) index decreased by 11.54 points to close at 1,276.60 and the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) fell by 35.48 points to close at 2,177.01.

Today the major stock markets in Asia are trading firm. Japan''s Nikkei trading higher by 172.05 points at 11,959.56 along with Hang Seng trading up by 132.54 points at 21,217.15 and Taiwan Weighted trading at 8,017.01 up by 11.55 points.

Indian ADRS closed in mixed. Satyam, Infosys and Wipro fell by (5.08%), (2.74%) and (1.94%) respectively. ICICI bank and HDFC bank fell by (12.84%) and (7.42%) respectively.

The FIIs on Monday stood as net seller in equity. The gross equity purchased was Rs3,545.60 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs3,674.40 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was (Rs128.80 Crore).

Today, Nifty has support at 4,404 and resistance at 4,592 and BSE Sensex has support at 14,426 and resistance at 15,268.