Pre Session Commentary - March 9 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open negative as the other Asian markets have opened with blood bath. The sentiment across the domestic arena has been fragile as the movements in Northward and Southward direction is frequent on every day''s trade. Investors are cautious on their holdings and fresh positions are doubtful in the midst of global economic meltdown, where global markets are heading towards southward. Domestic investors may today book profits on Friday''s gains, as such selling pressure is likely to pull markets into the southward zone in the early trading session.

On Friday, the domestic markets fell with a drastic negative gap however later managed to close in the green. Ignoring the trends of other markets, the domestic investors’ short covering helped the benchmark indices gain at the last trading hour. The European markets also traded positive on the back of 50bps rate cut announced by the Bank of England and European central bank to 0.50% and 1.5% respectively. The 0.50% rate of Bank of England is low at the level when the bank was founded in 1694. Sectors like IT, Teck, Oil & Gas and CG gained by 3.05%, 2.44%, 1.76% and 1.54% respectively. Whereas FMCG, Realty and Auto were the only sectors that conceded losses of 1.73%, 0.89% and 0.63% respectively. During the session we expect the markets to be trading volatile.

The BSE Sensex closed high by 127.90 points at 8,325.82 and NSE Nifty ended high by 43.45 points at 2,620.15. The BSE Small cap and Mid Cap closed with losses of 16.81 points and 24.28 points at 2,583.30 and 2,911.73 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 8,347.74 and intraday low of 8,047.11.

On Friday, the US stock markets closed mixed on the back of weak economic data. The initial gains were broad-based as participants began buying in the wake of the February jobs report, which indicated non-farm payrolls fell 651,000, in-line with expectations, and unemployment climbed more than expected to a 25-year high of 8.1%. The NASDAQ index fell to its six year low showing signs of fragile market trend. Sooner the financial stocks crumbled that led the other major indices loose grounds. US light crude oil for April delivery grew by $2.12 to settle at $45.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The crude oil rose on the back of weak US economic data and on expectations that OPEC will further cut production.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) inclined by 32.50 points to close at 6,626.94 The NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index fell by 5.74 points to close at 1,293.85 and the S&P 500 (SPX) grew by 0.83 points to close at 683.38.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading negative. Shanghai composite is low by 22.86 points to 2,170.15 along with Hang Seng that is trading lower by 190.63 points at 11,730.89 and South Korea''s Seoul Composite is flat at 1,055.49. Japan''s Nikkei is also low by 113.56 points at 7,059.54 and Singapore''s Straits Times is low by 29.29 points at 1,483.83.

Indian ADRs ended up. In technology sector, Satyam ended higher by 13.53% along with Infosys by 1.66%. Further, Patni Computers gained 10.22% and Wipro closed up by 0.54%. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 2.07% and 2.10% respectively. In telecommunication sector, MTNL dropped by 2.04% while Tata Communication advanced by 7.81%.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net sellers in equity and net buyers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,495.20 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 197.80 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,104.20 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 127.20 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (608.90) Crore and Rs 70.60 Crore respectively.

On Friday, the Indian rupee closed at 51.63/65, 0.25% stronger than its previous close of 51.76/78. The rupee gained after nine days of consecutive fall. The local stock markets closed positive and therefore the dollar inflow cues helped the rupee gain.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 24.30 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 3,338.61 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 56.38 Crore and total turnover was Rs 9,202.60 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – ICICI Bank with 50409495, Unitech with 29635113 shares, Suzlon Energy with 20818055 shares, Reliance Capital with 13690683 shares followed by Reliance Petro with 10454323 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1072707 with a total turnover of Rs 13,304.64 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 490165 with a total turnover of Rs 11,897.77 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1677878 with a total turnover of Rs 22,138.81 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 51876 and notional turnover was Rs 1,393.71 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 2,571 and resistance at 2,659 and BSE Sensex has support at 8,174 and resistance at 8,415.