Weak global cues to trigger negative start

Key benchmark indices are likely to see lower start today, 15 October 2008 tracking weak global cues as worries about the slowdown in the global economy resurfaced.

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Duvvuri Subbarao late Tuesday, 14 October 2008 to discuss the economic crisis. Without divulging details of the meeting, Chidambaram said that India economy was stable. A meeting of high-level bankers and experts group led by Finance Secretary Arun Ramanathan is scheduled today, 15 October 2008.

Among frontline companies, Larsen & Toubro and HCL Technologies will declare their September quarterly results today, 15 October 2008.

The US government in a meeting held on Tuesday, 14 October 2008 said it will inject $250 billion into the nation's banking system, with about half of it going to nine major institutions. In return, the government will receive equity stakes in the participating institutions. The proposed cash injection is part of a $700 billion rescue plan, which was approved by the US Congress earlier this month.

The beneficiaries of this effort include Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and the Bank of New York Mellon. This move follows pledges of more than $1.3 trillion by the governments of Britain, Germany, France, and other European countries in an effort to bolster their banks.

Asian markets were trading lower today, 15 October 2008 on concern the rescue would come at a huge economic cost and do little to repair the damage already done by a 14-month credit crunch. China's Shanghai Composite was down 1.29% or 26.03 points at 1,991.31, Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 2.41% or 405.05 points at 16,427.83, Japan's Nikkei fell 1.44% or 136.35 points at 9,311.22, Singapore's Straits Times tumbled 2.12% or 45.11 points at 2,083.20, South Korea's Seoul Composite declined 2.52% or 34.5 points at 1,333.19 and Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted slipped 1.58% or 83.48 points at 5,208.08.

US markets ended lower on Tuesday, 14 October 2008 as the enthusiasm about the government's plan to buy stakes in the nation's largest financial institutions died down and worries about earnings crept in. The Dow Jones slipped 76.62 points, or 0.82%, to 9,310.99. The S&P 500 index was down 5.34 points, or 0.53%, to 998.01 and the Nasdaq plunged 65.24 points, or 3.54%, to 1,779.01.

The U.S. saw its budget deficit balloon to a record for the 2008 fiscal year. As per the Treasury Department, the shortfall for the year ending September 2008 hit $455 billion. The deficit represented 3.2% of America's gross domestic product, up from last year's 1.2%. The largest-ever percentage of deficit to GDP occurred in 2004, when it hit 3.6%.

Back home, the key benchmark indices logged decent gains boosted by the Reserve Bank of India’s announcement to infuse more liquidity coupled with strong global markets. The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 174.31 points or 1.54% to 11,483.40 and the S&P CNX Nifty rose 27.95 points or 0.8% to 3,518.65, on that day.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net equity buyers worth Rs 898.25 crore while mutual funds sold shares worth Rs 252.37 crore on Tuesday, 14 October 2008, according to provisional data on NSE. FIIs were net buyers of Rs 1,747.68 crore in the futures & options segment on that day.

U.S crude fell 53 cents to $78.10 a barrel, while London Brent crude slipped 23 cents to $74.30 today, 15 October 2008 on fears as a global recession just about outweighed optimism for an economic recovery spurred by bank rescue schemes.