Pre Session Commentary - Dec 15 2008

Today we expect the market to open positive as other Asian markets are trading with strong positive trend. Despite the bad IIP numbers which stood as negative 0.4% as compared to 4.8% of earlier month, the markets showed good recovery towards the end trading session on Friday. The forex reserves have also fallen by $1.83 billion to $245.86 billion for the week ended December 5. The host of government relief packages seems to have been working as investors are showing some bullish sentiments. Hence we anticipate a good trend during today’s trading session.

On Friday, the markets opened with a negative gap and later managed to pare off the losses to end in green. The bad news of the senate not accepting the US bail out for US Auto makers brought sharp bearishness and fear across markets. The trading was no less than similar to the previous trading day where the markets moved to its full stretch on the south and north zone. The worst than expected IIP numbers pulled the sentiments. Later the rally happened in Reliance stocks which helped markets to end in green. Sensex and Nifty gained by 0.46% and %. Realty, CD, Oil & Gas and Bankex gained 3.94%, 2.93% 2.34% and 1.20% respectively. During the trading session we expect the market to be trading in a positive trend.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 44.61 points at 9,690.07 and NSE Nifty ended slightly up by 1.20 points at 2,921.35. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 47.40 points and 87.37 points at 3,050.48 and 3,530.96 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,745.51 and intraday low of 9,281.89.

On Friday, the US markets closed in green despite disrupting news. The Senate voted against the $14 billion bailout plan for the Auto makers. While the White House is also considering some possibility of using TARP funds in place of plan. After this news General Motors is implementing the plan to cut down its major production. The retail sales for the month of November fell by 1.8%. The drop in the consumer spending is likely to affect the GDP results. Crude oil futures for the month of January delivery fell $1.70 to $46.28 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange. The crude futures slipped to a low to $43.28 a barrel but managed to end above the day''s low as the Treasury Department said it would lend funds to the auto industry after a rescue plan collapsed in the Senate on Thursday night.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed higher with 64.59 points at 8,629.68 NASDAQ index gained 32.84 points at 1,540.72 and the S&P 500 (SPX) also closed higher by 6.14 points to close at 879.73 points.

Indian ADRs ended positive. In technology sector, Infosys gained by 1% and Wipro ended high by 2.41% followed by Satyam that gained 3.60% and Patni Computers closing high by 3.56%. In banking sector ICICI Bank gained 4.91%, while HDFC Bank gained by 5.89%. In telecommunication sector, Tata Communication inclined by 1.92%, while MTNL inclined by 4.75%.

Today the major stock markets in Asia opened positive. The Shanghai Composite is trading high by 8.38 at 1,962.60 Hang Seng is high by 453.26 points at 15,211.65. Further Japan''s Nikkei is high by 426.14 points at 8,662.01. South Korea’s Seoul Composite is high by 48.53 points at 1,152.35 and Singapore’s Strait Times is high by 37.64 points at 1,777.98.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net buyer in equity and net seller in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2078.80 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 591.80 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1745.40 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 961.10 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 333.30 Crore and Rs (369.20) Crore respectively.

On Friday Indian rupee weakened on lower IIP data offering evidence of a rapid economic slowdown. Rupee settled at 48.43/45 a dollar, 0.2% down than Thursday''s close of 42.33/34 but off the low of 49.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 40.08 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 4,486.93 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 80.59 Crore and total turnover was Rs 11,186.43 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 44597294 shares, Suzlon Energy with total volume traded 38338499 shares, followed by Reliance Petro with 25656378 shares, DLF with 19396753 shares and SAIL with 15308173 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1064562 with a total turnover of Rs 14,136.13 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 1082695 with a total turnover of Rs 10,890.81 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1040542 with a total turnover of Rs 15,163.20 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 81360 and notional turnover was Rs 888.02 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,955 and resistance at 3,045 and BSE Sensex has support at 9,610 and resistance at 9,980.