Pre Session Commentary - Feb 9 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive. The US markets closed in green on expectations of a economic stimulus package. The Chinese markets have also opened with green numbers as China has shown better economic indicators. The domestic markets had gained on Friday’s trade therefore some profit booking is likely to bring volatility in the markets today. The move of the markets might be influenced by the GDP forecast to be released today. On the macro economic level the CII favours a rate cut to stimulate the domestic demand as manufacturing sector is turning to be lackluster. There are also expectations of rate cut bill to be accepted by the government before the budget.

On Thursday, the markets opened with a positive gap and sustained its northward movement till the end. The global support helped the domestic markets to gain phenomenal numbers on the last day of the week. Sectors like Oil & Gas, Metal, CD and Bankex witnessed phenomenal gains of 3.27%, 3.04%, 2.52% and 2.49% respectively. Mid caps and Small caps also gained 1.43% and 1.05% respectively. During the session we expect the markets to be trading positive with mild volatility.

The BSE Sensex closed up by 209.98 points at 9,300.86 and NSE Nifty ended with gains of 63.05 points at 2,843.10. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps ended with gains of 40.70 points and 33.94 points at 2,882.80 and 3,279.24 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,321.38 and intraday low of 9,158.59.

The US markets on Friday closed in green. The markets gained as investors remained focused on the government''s plan to help rejuvenate banks and the broader financial system. Treasury Secretary Geithner will unveil the plan today, but many expect the plan to expand existing government lending facilities and deploy capital injections. The financial stocks rallied on the expectations of another stimulus package. On the dark side the non-farm jobs lost during January was 5,98,000 which was worst than expected since 1975. US light crude oil for March delivery fell by $1 to settle at $40.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed up by 217.52 points at 8,280.59. NASDAQ index gained 45.47 points at 1,591.71 and the S&P 500 (SPX) gained 22.75 points at 868.60.

Indian ADRs ended up. In technology sector, Infosys ended higher by 8.17 % along with Wipro by 6.90%. Further, Satyam ended with increase of 3.31% and Patni Computers closed up by 1.58%. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 8.07% and 5.20% respectively. In telecommunication sector, Tata Communication and MTNL advanced by 2.41% and 0.35 respectively. Sterlite Industries increased by 6.86%.

Today major stock markets in Asia have opened mixed. Shanghai composite is up by 34.91 points to 2,216.15, Japan''s Nikkei is also up by 8.37 points at 8,084.99. Hang Seng surged 77.21 points at 13,732.25. South Korea''s Seoul Composite is low by 3.65 points at 1,206.61 and Singapore''s Strait Times is also low by 20.02 points to 1,695.33.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net buyers in equity and net sellers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,291.20 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 24.70 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,240.00 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 159.20 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 51.20 Crore and Rs (134.50) Crore respectively.

On Friday, The Indian rupee strengthened on Friday tracking stock market gains. Rupee settled at 48.67/68 up from Thursday''s close of 48.77/78 to post its strongest close since Jan 9, 2009.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 30.76 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 2,742.59 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 62.45 Crore and total turnover was Rs 70.10 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 50472669 shares, Suzlon Energy with 17322393 shares, SAIL with 16213241 shares, DLF with total volume traded 15814795 shares followed by Reliance Petro with 6838930 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 706085 with a total turnover of Rs 9191.83 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 768446 with a total turnover of Rs 7,085.05 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 916965 with a total turnover of Rs. 13,130.67 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 65790 and notional turnover was Rs 645.71 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,822 and resistance at 2,926 and BSE Sensex has support at 9,240 and resistance at 9,489.