Pre Session Commentary - Nov 21 2008

Today Markets are likely to open with blood bath as US markets closed in deep red and other Asian markets have also opened with brutal losses. The job markets data caused the carnage in US and the weak sentiments have now plagued the other Asian markets. The sentiments are very fragile and as today is the closing day of the weak one could witness the investors being in a cautious note and hence little chances for markets to bounce back. The inflation data for the week ended November 8, 2008 recorded at 8.90% lower than 8.98% in the week earlier.

On Thursday, domestic Markets opened with heavy losses and continued the down trend till the end. The weak setiments across the markets in the world could be the sole cause of the fall. However investors are also skeptic about the present domestic economic scenario. Markets across Asia, Europe and US have faced extreme bearish pressures due to concerns over the global economy moving towards recession. Sensex and Nifty fell by 3.68% and 3.11% respectively. Realty, CD and Oil & Gas were the worst hit as they fell by 8.30%, 4.95%, 4.64% respectively. During the trading session we expect the market to be trading in deep red.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 322.77 points at 8,451.01 and NSE Nifty ended lower by 81.85 points at 2553.15. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 102.60 points at 2,895.79 and by 107.78 points at 3,385.34. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 8,540.46 and intraday low of 8,316.39.

On Thursday, US markets fell drastically. The bad job market news and the weak financial sector caused the blood bath in the markets. The latest jobless data shows 11th consecutive decline in monthly nonfarm payrolls. Initial jobless claims for the week ended November 15, 2008 jumped 27,000 to 542,000. That took the 4-week moving average to 506,500 from 490,750. Further the continuing claims increased to 4.01 million from 3.90 million. Crude oil futures for the December delivery fell by $4 cents to $49.62 a barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange. This is the lowest price since May 23, 2005. The weak concern about the economy has pulled the demand for oil.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 444.99 points at 7552.29 NASDAQ index lost 70.30 points at 1,316.12 and the S&P 500 (SPX) also closed lower by 54.14 points to close at 752.44 points.

Indian ADRs ended negative. In technology sector, Infosys fell by (5.67%) and Wipro ended low by (8.19%) followed by Satyam that ended low by (5.81%) and Patni Computers closing low by (6.49%). In banking sector ICICI Bank was low by (9.72%), while HDFC Bank fell (9.66%). In telecommunication sector, Tata Communication declined by (8.53%), while MTNL declined by (5.69%). Sterlite Industries was low by (5.23%).

Today the major stock markets in Asia opened negative. The Shanghai Composite is trading low by 73.89 at 1,909.87 Hang Seng is low by 293.00 points at 12,005.56. Further Japan''s Nikkei is low by 170.93 points at 7,532.11. Straits Times is also trading low by 26.86 points at 1,587.09 and South Korea’s Seoul Composite is low by 9.09 points at 939.60.

The FIIs on Thursday stood as net sellers in equity and net buyers in debt. The Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,884.00 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 337.60 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,092.20 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 0.00 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were (Rs 208.10) Crore and Rs 337.60 Crore respectively.

On Thursday, the partially convertible rupee ended at 50.18/22 per dollar, weaker by 0.3% on Wednesday’s closing at 50.02/03. The weak markets have led to outflow of dollars hugely, however today the heavy selling of dollars by state-run banks on behalf of the central bank helped the rupee to pair off its weakness.

On BSE, total number of shares traded was 22.17 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 2,899.59 Crore. On NSE, total volume of shares traded was 48.36 Crore and total turnover was Rs 7,793.97 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Suzlon Energy with total volume traded 22989561, followed by Unitech with 19375349, Reliance Petro with 15043893, ICICI Bank with 12389261 and SAIL with 10482309 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1019079 with a total turnover for the same was Rs 12060.2 crores. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 931039 with a total turnover of Rs 8985.35 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1199223 and total turnover was Rs 16379.92 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 52216 and notional turnover was Rs 558.36 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,405 and resistance at 2,535 and BSE Sensex has support at 8,010 and resistance at 8,310.