Pre Session Commentary - Jan 12 2009

Today the markets are likely to negative, as majority of Asian markets have opened with a blood bath and the US markets on Friday closed in red. The weak sentiments across the domestic markets have been well exuded in the previous trading sessions. There is no good news that could help the markets to bounce back and the sense of cautiousness still prevails across broader markets. In today’s session one could see volatility embedded with selling pressures.

On Friday, the markets traded in the southward with extreme volatility. The sentiments were weak and once again the investors traded with low excitement due to the Satyam issue. The carnage was seen in the sectors like Metal, Realty, CG and Oil & Gasas they lost by 7.16%, 5.15%, 4.70% and 2.81% respectively. Sensex and Nifty lost by 1.88% and 1.62% respectively. On the other hand sectors like FMCG, Auto and IT closed with gains of 1.22%, 1.01%, and 0.18% respectively. Mid caps and Small caps were also thrashed as they lost 2.41% and 2.92% respectively. During the session we expect the markets to be trading volatile.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 180.41 points at 9,406.47 and NSE Nifty ended lower by 47.40 points at 2873.00. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with losses of 77.12 points and 106.92 points at 3,120.79 and 3,555.60 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,630.40 and intraday low of 9,250.82.

On Friday, the US markets ended in red. The non-farm payrolls for the month of December fell by 5,24,000 parallel to the expected fall of 5,25,000. December unemployment is at a multiyear high of 7.2%, while total job losses for 2008 were the most since 1974, and are further expected to increase. The investors carried the fear about the dour economy. Companies like Boeing have announced to cut jobs in its commercial plane business so as to reduce the cost. Crude oil futures for the month of February delivery fell $0.87 to $40.83 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange. The US payrolls cut pulled the sentiments of investors for oil as well.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 143.28 points at 8,599.18 NASDAQ index lost 45.42 points at 1,571.59 and the S&P 500 (SPX) also closed lower by 19.38 points to close at 890.35.
Indian ADRs ended mixed. In technology sector, Infosys lost 0.64% while Satyam remained unchanged. Further Patni Computers ended with decrease of 4.14% and Wipro closed up by 1.86%. In banking sector ICICI Bank dropped by 0.85% whereas HDFC Bank gained 0.99%. In telecommunication sector, Tata Communication lost 1.06% and MTNL declined by 3.37%. Sterlite Industries decreased by 8.11%.

Today the major stock markets in Asia have opened negative. The Shanghai Composite is trading high by 4.62 points at 1,909.48 while Hang Seng is low by 252.91 points at 14,125.86. Further Japan''s Nikkei is closed. South Korea’s Seoul Composite is low by 22.31 points at 1,158.97 and Singapore’s Strait Times is low by 19.02 points at 1,787.00.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net sellers in equity and net buyers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2409.20 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 305.80 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 3467.60 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 0.00 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (1058.40) Crore and Rs 305.80 Crore respectively.

On Friday, Indian Rupee closed at 48.28/29 per dollar, 52 paise stronger than Wednesday’s close of 48.80/81. The rupee gained strength as banks sold the green back amidst reports that the foreign investments may not be affected due to the country’s biggest scam.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 43.43 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 4,207.30 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 103.18 Crore and total turnover was Rs 12,988.34 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Satyam with 215560932 shares, Unitech with 108388589 shares, DLF with total volume traded 42575927 shares, Suzlon Energy with 33939371 shares followed by SAIL with 20866245 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1095117 with a total turnover of Rs 14,592.10 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 1484272 with a total turnover of Rs 12,498.73 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1309665 with a total turnover of Rs 19,544.91 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 101498 and notional turnover was Rs 1073.27 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,808 and resistance at 2,953 and BSE Sensex has support at 9,189 and resistance at 9,540.