Pre Session Commentary - Apr 2 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as majority of Asian markets have opened positive and the US markets also closed in green. The phenomenal opening of the Asian markets would pump the buying sentiments across the domestic arena. There is lack of news in the domestic economy and hence investors are most likely to follow the global cues. The sentiments across the globe are conducive for another rally in the domestic markets as well. However the markets have already recovered its previous losses and any rise from this level would prompt investors to book profit as well.

On Wednesday, the domestic markets closed in green on the back of phenomenal buying towards the end. Despite the weak opening the domestic market during the noon trade started moving towards the northward as Asian markets showed positive cues of trend. The positive sentiments started building up strong after the post mid session as sectors like Realty, IT, Oil & Gas and Bankex exuded huge buying interest with gains of 5.41%, 3.17%, 2.88% and 2.48% respectively. Bottom line stocks were in the limelight as BSE SmallCap outperformed benchmark indices. During the session we expect the markets to be positive.

The BSE Sensex closed with gain of 193.49 points at 9,901.99 and NSE Nifty ended with gain of 39.40 points at 3,060.35. BSE Mid Caps and BSE Small Caps ended with gains of 55.57 points and 93.24 points at 3,011.80 and 3,339.87 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 9,921.96 and intraday low of 9,546.29.

On Wednesday, the US Markets closed with phenomenal gains. A surprise 2.1% increase in February pending home sales helped improve the investor sentiments. Pending home sales were expected to remain unchanged after declining 7.7% in January. There were some bad economic indicators like the ISM Manufacturing Index for March that showed continued contraction in manufacturing was essentially in-line with expectations at 36.3, and was up slightly from February''s 35.8. On the other hand ADP Employment Report that indicated 742,000 jobs were lost in the month of March. Economists expected 663,000 job losses. The US light crude oil for May delivery declined by 2.8% to settle at $48.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed high by 152.68 points at 7,761.60, the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index inclined by 23.01 points to close at 1,551.60 and the S&P 500 (SPX) inclined by 13.21 points to close at 811.08.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading positive. Hang Seng is trading up by 608.56 points at 14,128.10 followed by Japan''s Nikkei which is up by 274.20 points at 8,626.11, Strait Times is up by 55.50 points at 1,757.76. While Taiwan Weighted is up with gains of 116.71 points at 5,431.16 and Seoul Composite points is also up by 37.04 points at 1,270.40 respectively.

Indian ADRs ended mostly higher. In technology sector, Infosys ended up by 1.35% along with Satyam by 8.28%. Further, Wipro gained 2.53% and Patni Computers closed higher by 4.69%. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 8.25% and 2.38% respectively. However, in telecommunication sector Tata Communication and dropped by 3.09% and 1.10% respectively.

The FIIs on Wednesday stood as net seller in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,640.90 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 339.90 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,172.30 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 368.60 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (531.40) Crore and Rs (28.70) Crore respectively.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 34.57 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 3,887.60 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 79.88 Crore and total turnover was Rs 11,559.46 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 63149899 shares, Suzlon Energy with 42682811 shares, ICICI Bank with 22367380 shares, SAIL with 16783470 shares followed by Rel Capital with 15076150 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1023889 with a total turnover of Rs 14,675.42 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 491189 with a total turnover of Rs 14981.69 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1370181 with a total turnover of Rs 21,036.88 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 41666 and notional turnover was Rs 1,460.15 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 3,085 and resistance at 3,112 and BSE Sensex has support at 9,960 and resistance at 10,088.