Pre Session Commentary - June 4 2008

The Indian Market is likely to have positive opening due to favoring cues from the Asian markets. On Tuesday, the Indian market made a late stage recovery to pare most of its initial losses to close on moderately lower. The market tumbled at the start due to the worries of political uncertainty that Left may withdraw its support from the UPA over the concern of hiking domestic fuel price. Also, the lowering of ratings on Lehman Brothers Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and Morgan Stanley by Standard & Poor''s Ratings Services also adds to the negative sentiment in the market.

However, the bourses staged a recovery later as buying emerged after news that the Cabinet will meet today to decide on raising fuel prices. From the sectoral front, the cement shares gained some grounds on the back of reports that the government has restored benefits under the duty entitlement pass book (DEPB) scheme on export of cement, with immediate effect.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 100.62 points at 15,962.56 and NSE Nifty fell by 23.70 points to close at 4,715.9. We expect that the market may remain cautious as it may decline further during the trading session.

On Tuesday, the US market was closed in negative territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 100.97 points at 12,402.85 along with NASDAQ dropped by 11.05 points to close at 2,480.48 and S&P 500 index fell by 8.02 points to close at 1,377.65.

Major Indian ADRS closed on negative a note. In technology sector, Satyam fell by 2.25% along with Infosys by 2.09% and Patni Computers by 1.92%. In banking sector, HDFC bank and ICICI bank dropped by (3.91%) and (1.22%) respectively. In telecommunication sector, Tata Communication decreased by (0.64%). Sterlite industries slipped by (4.36%).

Today the major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. Japan Nikkei is trading higher by 175.23 points at 14,384.40 along with Taiwan Weighted trading up by 38.81 points at 8,618.24 while Hang Seng is trading lower by 26.40 points at 24,349.36.

The FIIs on Tuesday stood as net seller in equity. The gross equity purchased was Rs2,483.20 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs0.00 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs2,832.50 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs0.00 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was (Rs349.30 Crore) and net debt was Rs0.00 Crore.

Today, Nifty has support at 4,617 and resistance at 4,806 and BSE Sensex has support at 15,641 and resistance at 16,387.