Pre Session Commentary - Dec 29 2008

Today the markets are expected to open in red with negative bias, as most of the Asian markets seen marginally down. In addition the SGX Nifty has also opened in red pretty much in line with the Asian Markets. The last leap in the year 2008 is ending with a thin volume in many markets. The markets are desperately waiting for some cues like Second Stimulus package and rate cut to see some direction.

On Friday, the markets ended the day with a sharp fall as the tensions over the geo political issues raised possibility of a war. The marginal fall in the inflation numbers was also rained down. On the other hand, the bleak outlook over the second stimulus package and possible rate cut is getting deferred day by day. The markets were trading in negative zone on the concerns over the global economic outlook. The volume in the F&O segment is getting thinner and was down by 40% on Friday. Sensex and Nifty lost 2.51% and 1.24%. Capital Goods, Bankex, Metal, Oil & Gas, IT, Realty and Auto conceded lose of 2.95%, 2.99%, 2.77%, 1.78%, 3.92%, 3.82% and 1.72% respectively. However, the markets are expected to trade range bound over the day, as volume are expected to remain thin.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 239.80 points at 9,328.92 and NSE Nifty ended low by 59.60 points at 2,857.25. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with loss of 38.92 points and 51.66 points at 3,106.68 and 3,548.54 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,706.38 and intraday low of 9,294.98

On Friday, the US markets closed in green. Stocks inched higher in thin volume on Friday as energy shares rose alongside oil and General Motors climbed after its financing arm qualified for government funds, helping it stave off potential bankruptcy. However, the markets missed with a Santa Claus rally. Crude oil futures for the month of February delivery grew $2.36 to $37.71 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange. Despite the gain, oil finished the week down 11%. The crude futures rose Friday for the first time in four days after the UAE, the third-biggest oil producer in OPEC said it would reduce output to comply with OPEC’s supply curbs. Further the bargain hunting of contracts by the traders after a sharp slide in the previous session also added to the rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed up with 47.07 points at 8,515.55, NASDAQ index improved by 5.34 points at 1,530.24 and the S&P 500 (SPX) also closed higher by 4.65 points to close at 872.80 points.

Indian ADRs ended weak. In technology sector, Infosys lost by 3.94% while Wipro plunged by 3.49% whereas Satyam that surged by 3.80% and Patni Computers closing low by 0.91%. In banking sector ICICI Bank dropped by 4.38%, HDFC Bank fell by 3.27%. In telecommunication sector, Tata Communication dropped by 4.75%, while MTNL declined by 9.30%.

Today the major stock markets in Asia opened weak. The Shanghai Composite is trading low by 17.92 at 1,833.59, Hang Seng is low by 112.94 points at 14,071.20 Further Japan''s Nikkei is lower by 69.58. points at 8,669.94, Taiwan weighted low by 35.89 points at 4,390.78 and Singapore’s Strait Times is up by 12.08 points at 1,737.69.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net sellers in equity and net buyer in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,095.00 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 951.70 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,213.50 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 175.10 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (118.50) Crore and Rs 776.60 Crore respectively.

On Friday, Indian Rupee closed at 48.44/45 a dollar, fell by more than 0.80% as compared to Wednesday''s close of 48.07/08. The Indian benchmark indices gave up their gains after reacting to minor fall in inflation numbers and fear of geo political issues.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 26.37 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 3,175.40 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 52.93 Crore and total turnover was Rs 7,247.83 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 46635945 shares, Suzlon Energy with total volume traded 35082057 shares, Reliance Petro with 34419422 shares, Satyam with 25488062 shares, followed by DLF with 13351822 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 548479 with a total turnover of Rs 7330.93 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 658805 with a total turnover of Rs 7023.38 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 595715 with a total turnover of Rs 9061.71 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 60347 and notional turnover was Rs 737.87 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,767 and resistance at 2,920 and BSE Sensex has support at 9,142 and resistance at 9,524.