Market braced for weak opening

Weak global cues coupled with the possibility of a surge in crude oil prices may keep the market depressed in early trade.

Asian markets were trading weak today, 19 June 2008. China's Shanghai Composite plunged 0.86% or 25.29 points at 2,915.82, Nikkei lost 2.03% or 293.42 points at 14,159.40, Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.65% or 383.91 points at 22,941.89, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted slipped 1.43% or 117.80 points at 8,099.78, Straits Times fell 1.29% or 39.07 points at 3,001.02 and South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 1.46% or 25.96 points at 1,748.17

US stocks fell sharply yesterday, 18 June 2008, led by financial and auto stocks after worrisome results from Morgan Stanley, fed ex and others depressed market sentiment.

The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 131.24 points, or 1.08% to 12,029.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 13.12 points, or 0.97%, to 1,337.81, and the Nasdaq Composite index declined 28.02 points, or 1.14%, to 2,429.71.

Back home, market settled lower yesterday, 18 June 2008, led by weak European markets and deferral of a crucial UPA-Left coordination committee meeting on Indo-US nuclear deal scheduled yesterday, 18 June 2008.

The 30-share BSE Sensex lost 274.59 points or 1.75% at 15,422.31 and the broader based S&P CNX Nifty was down 70.6 points or 1.52% at 4582.40, on that day.

The barometer index is down 5784.46 points or 27.27% from a record high of 21206.77 it hit on 10 January 2008. Slowdown in corporate earnings caused by moderation in economic growth and increase in risk aversion globally due to credit crisis in the United States, has triggered a massive fall on the Indian bourses this year.

As per provisional data, foreign funds sold shares worth a net Rs 435 crore while domestic mutual funds bought shares worth a net Rs 193.64 crore yesterday, 18 June 2008.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Rs 192.64 crore in the futures & options segment yesterday, 16 June 2008. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 682.33 crore and bought index options worth Rs 359.98 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 133.45 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 3.74 crore.

Meanwhile, the crucial UPA-Left meeting on the Indo-US nuke deal has been postponed till 25 June 2008. The panel will discuss the text of a draft India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency or the IAEA. The government says it's because the Syrian President is in town on a visit. Yesterday, 18 June 2008, meeting of the Left-UPA coordination committee was to be the tenth meeting to discuss the indo-us nuclear deal.

Core sector growth for April 2008 declined to 3.6% from 5.9% in the same month last year on account of a huge fall in the production of petroleum refinery products and electricity. Production data of six core sectors form the core-infrastructure industries index.

Light, sweet crude oil jumped $2.67 to $136.68 per barrel on the New York Mercantile after the US Energy Department said the country’s crude oil stockpiles fell less than expected last week but that gasoline supplies had declined.