Pre Session Commentary - March 13 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as the US markets closed with phenomenal gains and the other Asian markets have also opened with green numbers. The sentiments are strong on the global front as such one could witness similar trend on the domestic front also. There is no specific news to support the market sentiments therefore there would be some room for profit booking that may lead to mild volatility.

On Thursday, the domestic markets opened with a positive gap to catch up with the global markets that had surged on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Phenomenal buying was witnessed across frontline stocks. Though there was little profit booking pressures in the morning session, but the buying strength helped maintain the northward movement. The IIP data for the January month recorded a contraction of 0.5% as against 2% contraction in the month of December. The inflation on the other hand recorded at 2.43% for the week ended Feb 28. Investors were well aware of the IIP contraction and therefore no turbulence was seen during the day’s trade. Sectors like Auto, Bankex, Oil & Gas and Metal gained phenomenally by 3.70%, 3.33%, 3.21% and 2.87% respectively. Whereas CD and Teck were the only sectors that conceded losses of 1.30% and 0.09% respectively. During the session we expect the markets to be trading positive.

The BSE Sensex closed high by 183.35 points at 8,343.75 and NSE Nifty gained by 44.30 points at 2,617.45. The BSE Small cap and Mid Cap closed with gains of 10.91 points and 10.59 points at 2,564.40 and 2,877.27 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 8,439.71 and intraday low of 8,274.78.

On Thursday, the US stock markets closed with remarkable gains. The phenomenal surge in the markets was inspired by better than expected retail sales data, renewed buying interest in bellwether General Electric, and more encouraging news from the financial sector. February retail sales declined just 0.1%, which is better than the 0.5% decline that was expected. Excluding autos, retail sales increased 0.7%. A decline of 0.1% was expected. Meanwhile, January total sales and sales less autos were revised to show an even larger increase. Weekly initial claims climbed 9,000 to 654,000, which was worse than expected. Continuing claims jumped nearly 200,000 to 5.32 million, which was also worse than expected. US light crude oil for April delivery grew by $4.70 to settle at $45.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The crude oil prices surged ahead of the OPEC meeting this weekend to consider a fourth production cut.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) inclined by 239.66 points to close at 7,170.06 The NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index grew by 54.46 points to close at 1,426.10 and the S&P 500 (SPX) grew by 29.38 points to close at 750.74.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading positive. Shanghai composite is up by 13.20 points to 2,147.08 along with Hang Seng that is trading higher by 471.88 points at 12,473.41 and South Korea''s Seoul Composite is up by 5.07 points at 1,133.46. Japan''s Nikkei is also high by 354.90 points at 7,553.15 and Singapore''s Straits Times is high by 52.63 points at 1,546.16.

Indian ADRs closed up. In technology sector, Satyam ended higher by 0.56% along with Infosys by 3.67%. Further, Patni Computers gained 7.39 and Wipro closed up by 4.84%. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 4.26% and 2.27% respectively. In telecommunication sector, MTNL dropped by 2.46% while Tata Communication advanced by 2.55%. Further, Sterlite Industries increased by 3.78%.

The FIIs on Thursday stood as net buyers in equity and net sellers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,028.40 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 130.30 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,016.40 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 571.70 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 12 Crore and Rs (441.40) Crore respectively.

On Thursday, the Indian rupee closed at 51.88/89, 0.03 paise weaker than its previous close of 51.85/87. The gain in the stock markets kept the rupee firm.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 23.72 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 2,726.77 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 50.87 Crore and total turnover was Rs 8,353.43 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – ICICI Bank with 27371681, Suzlon Energy with 20824838 shares, Unitech with 15143785 shares, Bharti Airtel with 14874877 shares followed by Reliance Comm with 9316917 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1049444 with a total turnover of Rs 13,098.44 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 420857 with a total turnover of Rs 10,639.76 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1863364 with a total turnover of Rs 24,621.59 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 41948 and notional turnover was Rs 1,166.44 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,639 and resistance at 2,674 and BSE Sensex has support at 8,396 and resistance at 8,528.