Pre Session Commentary - March 17 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as the Asian markets are trading mostly in green as well as tracking the yesterday’s strong rally. However, the market may turn lackluster as the day progress and will look for some cues to take further directions. There in no specific news that could drive the markets and therefore one could witness some profit booking. The market will be keeping an eye on the two-day meeting of the Fed policy makers starting today to discuss the interest rates. Therefore, there could be some volatile trend during the trading session.

On Monday, the domestic markets opened shy and volatile, however later it managed to close with phenomenal gains. The global cues were encouraging and the positive outlook of US financial sector pumped the morale of domestic investors. Phenomenal buying was witnessed across broader level as even the bottom line stocks were in the lime light. Majority of Asian Markets were trading northwards and the phenomenal positive opening of European markets reinforced the confidence of domestic investors. Sectors like Realty, Oil & Gas, Bankex, PSU, FMCG and CD gained phenomenally by 5.35%, 3.44%, 2.86%, 2.84%, 2.73% and 2.72% respectively. During the session we expect the markets to be trading volatile.

The BSE Sensex closed high by 186.93 points at 8,943.54 and NSE Nifty gained by 58 points at 2,777.25. The BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap closed with gains of 60.20 points and 64.43 points at 2,700.56 and 2,998.49 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 8,955.73 and intraday low of 8,697.46.

On Monday, the US stock markets ended its four days winning steak to close negative due to weakness among the technology space and rising concern over rising credit card defaults. Profit booking by investors from last week’s gains also contributed to fall. However, the financial stocks continued its rally to fuel gains in broader market. US light crude oil for April delivery grew by $1.10 to settle at $47.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed down by 7.01 points at 7,216.97, the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index lost 27.48 points to close at 1,404.02 and the S&P 500 (SPX) dropped by 2.66 points to close at 753.89.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading mostly up. Hang Seng is higher by 6.82 points to 12,983.53, Shanghai composite is also up by 31.43 points at 2,184.72. Further, South Korea''s Seoul Composite gained 18.97 points at 1,144.43 and Japan''s Nikkei is higher by 114.67 points to 7,818.82. However, Singapore''s Strait Times is down by 16.34 points at 1,569.98.

Indian ADRs ended slightly mixed. In technology sector, Satyam ended lower by 5.03% along with Infosys by 0.91%. Further, Wipro gained 0.96 while Patni Computers closed down by 4.09%. In banking sector ICICI Bank gained 7.12% while HDFC Bank lost 1.60%. In telecommunication sector, Tata Communication dropped by 3.21% while MTNL advanced by 7.56%. Further, Sterlite Industries increased by 2.40%.

The FIIs on Monday stood as net buyers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,105 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 1,038.50 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,913.60 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 952.50 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 191.40 Crore and Rs 86 Crore respectively.

On Monday, the Indian rupee closed at 51.40/52, 0.21% stronger than its previous close of 51.51/52. The phenomenal gain in stock markets helped rupee appreciate on expectations of foreign money inflow.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 30.38 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 3,504.97 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 62.88 Crore and total turnover was Rs 9,501.1 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 52869203, Suzlon with 23595471 shares, ICICI Bank with 22200212 shares, SAIL with 14233356 shares followed by DLF with 14055135 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 888070 with a total turnover of Rs 11,711.21 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 495518 with a total turnover of Rs 13,391.32 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1554659 with a total turnover of Rs 21,245.41 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 55181 and notional turnover was Rs 1,680.02 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,684 and resistance at 2,839 and BSE Sensex has support at 8,672 and resistance at 9,104.