Market seen opening lower on global cues

Local shares are likely to be under pressure today, 8 July 2008, as weak global cues will weigh on sentiment. Talks of crude touching $200 at the G8 summit may dampen the sentiment further.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said oil could reach $200 a barrel within two years and suggested that stock exchanges should increase margin deposits on the futures market, which now stands at 5%, which could curb speculative buying.

Crude oil for August delivery fell sharply by $3.92, to settle at $141.37 a barrel yesterday, 7 July 2008, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Sentiment may remain cautious ahead of the crucial International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting with board of governors scheduled on 28 July 2008 to approve the India-specific safeguards agreement. The Manmohan Singh government is expected to notify the agreement with the IAEA secretariat in the second week of July. Singh will be meeting president George Bush in Japan to discuss the progress on the deal. The US president has been pressing Mr Singh hard to work out the deal.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, 7 July 2008 said the UPA government will go through the remaining formalities of the nuclear deal and expressed full confidence that his government will last its full term.

Tracking declines in US equities, Asian markets took hit on the chin today, 8 July 2008. Asian markets were trading weak today, 8 July 2008. Shanghai Composite rose 1.11% or 30.90 points at 2,823.29. Hang Seng fell 1.42% or 310.08 points at 21,602.98, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted slipped 1.85% or 135.56 points at 7,205.55, Singapore's Straits Times lost 0.93% or 27.21 points at 2,906.91 and South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 2.24% or 35.39 points at 1,544.33 and Nikkei plunged 1.78% or 238.18 points at 13,121.86.

US markets edged lower yesterday, 7 July 2008, on concerns that the top two mortgage providers would have to raise even more capital, eroding existing shareholders' stakes further. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 56.58 points, or 0.50%, to 11,231.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 10.59 points, or 0.84%, to 1,252.31, and the Nasdaq Composite index dropped 2.06 points, or 0.09%, to 2,243.32.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose 71.99 points or 0.54% at 13,525.99 and the broader based S&P CNX Nifty gained 14 points or 0.35% at 4,030 yesterday, 7 July 2008.

From a record high of 21,206.77 hit on 10 January 2008, Sensex has lost 7,680.78 points or 36.21%. It is down 6,761 points or 33.32% in calendar year 2008 so far.

As per the provisional figures on NSE, the foreign institutional investors (FII)'s sold shares worth Rs 439.57 crore, while domestic funds bought shares worth Rs 75.9 crore on 7 July 2008.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of Rs 866.58 crore in the futures & options segment on 7 July 2008. They were net buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 634.41 crore and sold index options worth Rs 59.95 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 271.75 crore and purchased stock options worth Rs 20.38 crore.