Market likely to see volatile session

Local bourses open lower tracking negative cues from overseas markets. Caution may prevail ahead of Federal Reserve meeting scheduled after Indian market hours today to decide on US interest rates.

US crude futures tumbled yesterday, 4 August 2008, as OPEC output rose for the third month in a row in July, outweighing concerns about Tropical Storm Edouard. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, September crude settled down $3.69 at $121.41 a barrel.

Most Asian markets were trading lower today, 5 August 2008. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.61% or 16.80 points at 2,724.94, Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 1.61% or 362.23 points at 22,152.69, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted slipped 1.85% or 129.20 points at 6,848.16, Singapore's Straits Times fell 0.65% or 18.80 points at 2,857.28, South Korea's Seoul Composite lost 0.30% or 4.69 points at 1,538.36. However, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.27% or 34.85 points at 12,968.03

US stocks fell yesterday, 4 August 2008, as shares of energy and commodity-related companies tumbled on falling oil and metals prices and investors worried the housing slump could fuel further losses at financial companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 42.17 points, or 0.37%, to 11,284.15, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 11.30 points, or 0.9% to 1,249.01, while the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 25.40 points, or 1.10%, to 2,285.56.

Back home, key indices ended lower in a turbulent session yesterday, 4 August 2008. The BSE Sensex slipped 78.82 points or 0.54% to 14,577.87 and the NSE Nifty shed 18 points or 0.41% to 4395.35.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of equity worth Rs 507.81 crore while mutual funds net sold 46.97 crore yesterday, 4 August 2008. According to provisional data on NSE.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Rs 631.90 crore in the futures & options segment on Monday, 4 August 2008. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 227.23 crore and sold index options worth Rs 86.38 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 348.99 crore and bought stock options worth Rs 30.70 crore.

Meanwhile, international credit rating agency Moody’s Corporation has cautioned that they might be looking at revising India’s rating downward. This is the second rating agency other than S&P that has given out a red flag on India’s economic fundamentals.