Pre Session Commentary - Aug 1 2008

The Indian Market is expected to have negative opening due to weak global cues as US markets closed in red and Asian markets are trading lower. Thursday, the Indian market managed to close with gains after showing volatility during the trading session. The domestic market opened on positive but soon turned volatile ahead of F&O expiry day and inflation number for the week ended 19th July 2008. Further it was not able to gain the momentum and was skipping up and down. At the end, market managed to close in green due to some buying in key indices during final hours of trading. NSE Nifty maintained the level of 4,300 and BSE Sensex maintained 14,300 level. On the sectoral front, Metal, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and Reality stocks gained favor from the market as witnessed buying from these baskets. However, Pharma, IT and Reality stocks observed selling pressure. The BSE Sensex closed higher by 68.54 points at 14,355.75 and NSE Nifty ended up by 19.40 points at 4,332.95. We expect that market may trade lower with negative bias during the trading session.

Inflation for the week ended 19th July 2008, stood at 11.98% in comparison to 11.89% of previous week. This increase is mainly due to higher prices of some food articles and manufacturing products.

On Thursday, the US market was closed in red after weak readings on economic growth and the job market data. According to a commerce department''s report, gross domestic product grew by 1.9% in the second quarter. Investors were also worried due to Labor Department’s data saying that the number of people seeking jobless benefits jumped to the highest level in five years. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped 44,000 last week, above the Wall Street consensus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 205.67 points at 11,378.02 along with S&P 500 index ended down by 16.88 points at 1,267.38 and NASDAQ closed lower by 4.17 points at 2,325.55.

Indian ADRs ended down. In technology sector, Wipro ended higher by (1.08%) along with Infosys by (0.69%), while Satyam closed down by (1.61%) and Patni Computers dropped by (0.67%). In banking sector, HDFC bank and ICICI bank lost (2.51%) and (0.90%) respectively. In telecommunication sector, MTNL and Tata Communication ended down by (3.71%) and (2.71%). Sterlite industries decreased by (2.92%).

Today the major stock markets in Asia are trading weak on weak US economic data. Hang Seng index is trading down by 351.15 points at 22,379.95 along with Japan’s Nikkei trading lower by 295.88 points at 13,080.93. Taiwan Weighted is trading at 6,919.13 down by 104.93 points.

The FIIs on Thursday stood as net seller in equity. The gross equity purchased was Rs2,464.60 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs0.00 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs2,855.90 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs0.00 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was (Rs391.90) Crore and net debt was Rs0.00 Crore.

Today, Nifty has support at 4,146 and resistance at 4,398 and BSE Sensex has support at 13,858 and resistance at 14,642.