Pre Session Commentary - March 16 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as the US markets closed in green on Friday and majority of other Asian markets have also opened with phenomenal gains. There in no specific news that could drive the markets and therefore one could witness some profit booking. Amidst the profit booking pressures the day’s trade would shape up flat with volatility creeping in during the later trading session.

On Friday, the domestic markets opened with huge positive gap and further flung to achieve new highs for the week. The phenomenal gain in the US markets and the simultaneous positive sentiments prevailing in Asian and European markets helped the domestic markets to record biggest gain for the year 2009. This was no less than a celebrative day to close the week with staggering numbers. Buying was witnessed with strong huge short covering. Sectors like Realty, Metal, Bankex, IT and Oil & Gas gained phenomenally by 7.57%, 6.26%, 5.85%, 5.63% and 4.71% respectively. During the session we expect the markets to be trading positive with mild volatility.

The BSE Sensex closed high by 412.86 points at 8,756.61 and NSE Nifty gained by 101.80 points at 2,719.25. The BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap closed with gains of 75.96 points and 56.79 points at 2,640.36 and 2,934.069 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 8,793.21 and intraday low of 8,480.74.

On Friday, the US stock markets closed in green. During Friday’s trade investors booked profits as the markets rebound 11% during the previous three day’s trade. There was no positive or negative news to decide the market movements. Financial sector was the worst hit as it fell by 4%. The Federal Open Market Committee will meet on March 17-18 to make it monetary policy. The FOMC is likely to keep the interest rates at 0%-0.25%. On the other hand the January trade balance showed a deficit of $36 billion better than the expected $38 billion. The deficit is narrowing every month since July, thus exuding the contraction in the global trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed up by 53.92 points at 7,223.98, the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index grew by 5.40 points to close at 1,431.50 and the S&P 500 (SPX) grew by 5.81 points to close at 756.55.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. Shanghai composite is low by 9.77 points to 2,119.07 along with Hang Seng that is trading higher by 186.19 points at 12,711.99 and South Korea''s Seoul Composite is up by 13.50 points at 1,139.53 Japan''s Nikkei is also high by 184.83 points at 7,754.11 and Singapore''s Straits Times is low by 16.62 points at 1,560.90.

Indian ADRs ended mixed. In technology sector, Satyam ended slightly lower by 0.56% along with Infosys by 0.31%. Further, Wipro gained 2.80 while Patni Computers closed down by 2.92%. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 0.34% and 3.66% respectively. In telecommunication sector, MTNL dropped by 5.46% while Tata Communication advanced by 8.96%. Further, Sterlite Industries increased by 3.83%.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net sellers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,896.90 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 257.80 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,996.30 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 262.20 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (99.30) Crore and Rs (4.40) Crore respectively.

On Friday, the Indian rupee closed at 51.51/52, 0.67% stronger than its previous close of 51.88/89. The sky rocketing stock markets helped the appreciation of rupee on expectations of foreign money inflow.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 26.67 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 3,230.11 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 60.15 Crore and total turnover was Rs 9,671.81 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech Bank with 31061499, ICICI Bank with 26088959 shares, Suzlon Energy with 18617022 shares, DLF with 16865228 shares followed by Bharti Airtel with 14719791 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 916710 with a total turnover of Rs 11,860.33 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 456871 with a total turnover of Rs 11,956.44 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1647863 with a total turnover of Rs 22,148.99 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 62250 and notional turnover was Rs 1,723.9 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,685 and resistance at 2,779 and BSE Sensex has support at 8,685 and resistance at 8,889.