Pre Market Watch - March 3 2008

The Indian Market is likely to have a negative opening, as the cues from the global markets are not in favor. On Friday, The Indian market made a smart recovery towards the final trading hours of the session to pare most of its losses. The market tumbled in the mid session as the finance minister announced a hike in short term capital gains tax to 15% from 10% earlier. The finance minister kept the corporate tax and the tax on securities transaction tax unchanged. Auto stocks gained as the government reduced excise duty on small cars to 12% from 16%. Government cut excise duty on hybrid cars to 14%, from 24%. India''s wholesale price index (WPI) rose 4.89 % in the 12 months to 16 February 2008 over the same period last year from the previous week''s rise of 4.35%. The BSE Sensex closed lower by 245.76 at 17,578.72 and NSE Nifty fell by 61.6 points to close at 5,223.50. We expect that the market may remain cautious during the trading session

On Friday, the US market was closed in negative. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 315.79 points at 12,266.39 along with NASDAQ closed down by 60.09 points at 2,271.48 and S&P 500 index fell by 37.05 points to close at 1,330.63.

The major stock markets in Asia are trading weak. Japan''s Nikkei is trading lower by 322.49 points at 13,603.02 along with Hang Seng trading down by 260.02 points at 24,331.67 and Taiwan''s Weighted trading down by 49.32 points at 8,412.76.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net seller in equity as well as in debt. The gross equity purchased was Rs3,655.60 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs0.00 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs4,184.90 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs428.20 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was (Rs529.30) Crore and net debt was (Rs428.20 Crore).

Today, Nifty has support at 5,106 and resistance at 5,274 and BSE Sensex has support at 17,088 and resistance at 17,934.