Pre Session Commentary - March 25 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open negative as the other Asian markets have opened with blood bath and the US markets closed in red yesterday. The profit booking pressures on the broader level shows the weak sentiments prevailing across the world. A phenomenal rally in the previous trading sessions has prompted investors to book profits. Today one may witness further profit booking pressures as the markets closed flat yesterday. The early gains are yet to be discounted at broader level. One may witness cautious trade with an essence of selling pressure.






On Tuesday, the domestic markets opened with a positive gap but could not withstand the profit booking pressures. The positive opening was backed by the US treasury plan of $ 1 trillion and hence phenomenal opening of other Asian markets as well. The northward movement was however later impeded by immense selling pressures of profit booking. It was very obvious that the gains piling up since the last week was at its peak level for fall. Unlike the domestic markets, other Asian markets managed to close with remarkable gains. However due to the intense selling pressure Sensex closed with shallow gains, whereas NSE Nifty ended flat. European markets on the other hand had a mixed trading. Sectors like Bankex, Realty, CG, FMCG and Auto ended in green, however sectors like Metal, CD and PSU closed in red. During the session we expect the markets to be trading highly volatile with negative bias.

The BSE Sensex closed with gain of 47.02 points at 9,471.04 and NSE Nifty ended with a marginal loss of 1.20 points at 2,938.70. BSE Mid Caps and BSE Small Caps ended with losses of 16.36 points and 21.47 points at 2,820.08 and 3,155.45 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,699.04 and intraday low of 9,402.64.

The US stock markets closed lower on Tuesday after a sharp rally in the previous session as investors paused to re-assess the likely success of the government''s latest plans to clean up bank balance sheets and revive the financial system. Further there are reports that the SEC is considering modifying its uptick rules. Meanwhile, the Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner were put at the mercy of a House Financial Services Committee hearing regarding the rescue of AIG. US light crude oil for May delivery grew by 0.5% to settle at $54.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed low by 115.65 points at 7,660.21, the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index fell 37.18 points to close at 1,518.59 and the S&P 500 (SPX) fell by 16.57 points to close at 806.35.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. Hang Seng is trading lower by 49.56 points at 13,860.78 followed by Japan''s Nikkei by 12.53 points at 8,475.77, Strait Times by 6.87 points at 1,699.47. While Taiwan Weighted and Seou Composite are trading with gains of 82.94 points and 2.14 points at 5,325.12 and 1,223.84 respectively.

Indian ADRs ended down. In technology sector, Patni Computers ended lower by 8.11% along with Infosys that ended down by 4.92%. Further, Satyam lost 3.07% and Wipro closed down by 2.99%. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank lost 3.09% and 5.85% respectively. In telecommunication sector, MTNL dropped by 5.20% along with Tata Communication by 1.56%. Further, Sterlite Industries decreased by 7.61%.

The FIIs on Tuesday stood as net buyer in equity and net seller in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,445.90 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 156.90 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,130.20 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 496.20 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 315.80 Crore and Rs (339.30) Crore respectively.

On Tuesday, the Indian rupee closed at 50.73/74, 0.5% weaker than its previous close 50.46/47. Rupee lost its charm as the domestic stock markets pared its gains towards the closing bell.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 34.31 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 4,258.49 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 83.99 Crore and total turnover was Rs 13,308.11 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 68325551, Suzlon Energy with 52820733 shares, ICICI Bank with 22747200 shares, SAIL with 21864661 shares followed by DLF with 17455586 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1444913 with a total turnover of Rs 20,808.98 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 750002 with a total turnover of Rs 22,635.53 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 2200776 with a total turnover of Rs 32,782.07 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 63936 and notional turnover was Rs 2,044 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,872 and resistance at 2,969 and BSE Sensex has support at 9,313 and resistance at 9,595.