Pre Session Commentary - Apr 28 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open negative as the US markets have closed in flat and Asian markets are trading mixed. There is hardly any cue from the global markets to direct our domestic investors. Amidst lack of supportive news selling pressure is likely to spurt from the beginning of the trade. However, yesterday phenomenal recovery from the early losses exudes the buying interest of investors at broader level. On may witness extreme volatility during the day’s trade.

On Monday, domestic markets closed flat after a flurry of volatile trade. There was lack of any positive cues from other markets and therefore investors had very little to chase a northward direction. The frontline stocks faced some profit booking after a little gain in benchmark indices. During the early trading session the bottom line stocks were in the limelight and had even outperformed the heavyweights, however as the trading day progressed profit booking pressures pulled those stocks to bottom levels. Throughout the day the markets remained choppy ahead of the F&O expiry. Banking and Capital Goods stocks were gainers with gains of 2.41% and 1.57% respectively. However Realty and Power were under selling pressure as they lost 2.77% and 2.42% respectively. We expect the markets to trade highly volatile.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 42.80 points at 11,371.85 and NSE Nifty ended low by 10.75 points at 3,470.00. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 15.81 points and 41.12 points at 3,584.28 and 4,027.14 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 11,492.10 and intraday low of 11,176.55.

On Monday, the US stock markets closed flat. Due to lack of any economic data investors were receptive towards corporate earnings announcement. The markets at broader level failed to sustain the mid day rally and therefore the downturn. The news of swine flu attracted investors in pharmaceutical and biotech stocks. General motors gained on the back of news that the company is planning to restructure its operations to avoid the pitfall of bankruptcy. Financial stocks were hammered which was lead by Wells Fargo that fell by 4.9% as the stock was downgraded by banking analyst. US light crude oil futures for June fell by 2.90% at $50.07 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) declined by 51.29 points to close at 8,025.00 The NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index fell by 14.88 points to close at 1,679.41 and the S&P 500 (SPX) declined by 8.72 points to close at 857.51.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. Shanghai composite is low by 16.68 at 2,388.66. Hang Seng is trading low by 71.81 points at 14,768.61 followed by Japan''s Nikkei which is low by 17.70 points at 8,708.64, Strait Times is up by 1.55 points at 1,820.16. While Taiwan Weighted is down by 35.88 points at 5,669.17 and Seoul Composite points is low by 10.39 points at 1,329.44 respectively.

Indian ADRs ended mostly lower. In technology sector, Infosys ended down by 0.76% along with Satyam by 0.54%. Further, Patni Computers lost 2.53% whereas Wipro closed up by 0.44%. In banking sector ICICI Bank gained 2.05% while HDFC Bank dropped by 0.69%. In telecommunication sector Tata Communication lost 0.73% whereas MTNL gained 2.11%. Sterlite Industries decreased by 1.10%.

The FIIs on Monday stood as net buyers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,948.40 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 1174.70 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,434.90 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 133.30 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 513.50 Crore and Rs 1,041.40 Crore respectively.

On Monday, the Rupee closed at Rs.50.23/25, 0.8% weaker than its previous close of Rs. 49.81/82. The rupee fell due to month end demand of dollar from importers.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 42.06 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,367.98 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 91.12 Crore and total turnover was Rs 15,334.96 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 60781110 shares, followed by Suzlon Energy with 30523498 shares, ICICI Bank with 26781464 shares, SAIL 16743474 shares and Idea Cellular with 15619855 shares respectively.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1241542 with a total turnover of Rs 20,940.25 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 655136 with a total turnover of Rs 25,041.05 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1617611 with a total turnover of Rs 28,028.38 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 43742 and notional turnover was Rs 1,767.55 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 3,456 and resistance at 3,518 and BSE Sensex has support at 11,215 and resistance at 11,469.