Pre Session Commentary - Apr 20 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive with marginal gap. The sentiments across Asia are mixed and there could be possibility of further deterioration as the markets progresses. The US markets have closed flat due to mixed earnings report from industry giants like Citigroup which reported a loss and on the other hand GE which reported better than expected quarterly results. The corporate earnings expectations will now play a major role in deciding the movements of domestic markets. There could be immense sense of cautiousness amongst investors ahead the corporate results.

On Friday, domestic markets managed to close in green after paring its initial gains. The markets trade with utmost buying sentiments during the trading session however towards the end investors booked profits across the frontline stocks. On the other hand Nikkei was the only index that out performed in the Asian markets. The positive opening of European markets helped investors to keep the buying trend firm. However the weekend trading session prompted investors to take a safer position amidst the murky corporate results season. In the Sectoral indices Realty, Bankex, IT and CG gained by 3.13%, 2.93%, 2.92% and 2.57% respectively. Metal faced the blaze as it closed with a loss of 1.66%. During the session we expect the markets to be trading volatile.

The BSE Sensex closed with gain of 75.69 points at 11,023.09 and NSE Nifty ended with gain of 14.90 points at 3,384.40. BSE Mid Caps and BSE Small Caps ended with gains of 33.87 points and 22.57 points at 3,472.60 and 3,951.56 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 11,339.47 and intraday low of 10,946.25.
On Friday, the US stock markets closed flat. There was phenomenal buying sentiments across financial sector as there were optimistic comments from the regional bank BB&T which had reassured investors that banks can still make profits while building loss provisions. On the other hand the financial major Citigroup was a laggard after the bank reported quarterly loss of $0.18 per share. The industrial giant GE surged phenomenally as the giant recorded better than expected quarterly result of $0.26 per share. US light crude oil futures for May surged 1.4% at $50.70 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) inclined by 5.90 points to close at 8,131.33. The NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index surged 2.63 points to close at 1,673.07 and the S&P 500 (SPX) inclined by 4.30 points to close at 869.60.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. Shanghai composite is high by 33.55 points at 2,537.49. Hang Seng is trading high by 164.67 points at 15,765.94 followed by Japan''s Nikkei which is low by 34.30 points at 8,873.28, Strait Times is low by 14.28 points at 1,882.28. While Taiwan Weighted is up by 18.39 points at 5,773.77 and Seoul Composite points is low by 6.74 points at 1,322.26 respectively.

Indian ADRs ended higher. In technology sector, Infosys ended up by 1.75% along with Wipro by 1.80%. Further, Patni Computers gained 1.48% and Satyam closed higher by 2.08%. In banking sector ICICI Bank gained 0.91% and HDFC Bank advanced by 0.32%. In telecommunication sector Tata Communication and MTNL went up 0.66% and 0.37% respectively. Sterlite Industries increased by 2.45%.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net buyers in equity and net sellers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 3,019.30 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 493.70 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,623.40 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 518.90 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 395.80 Crore and Rs (25.20) Crore respectively.

On Friday, the Rupee closed at Rs. 49.87/88, 0.2% weaker than its previous close of Rs. 49.77/88. The local currency closed weaker as green back gained strength against other currencies of the world.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 51.21 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,569.51 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 117.37 Crore and total turnover was Rs 17,393.06 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 165510269 shares, Suzlon Energy with 59798795 shares, SAIL with 21110357 shares, Tata Steel with 19126388 shares followed by DLF with 18289931 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1301274 with a total turnover of Rs 21,541.40 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 553594 with a total turnover of Rs 20,776.41 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1781264 with a total turnover of Rs 30,884.04 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 55306 and notional turnover was Rs 2,236.64 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 3,311 and resistance at 3,427 and BSE Sensex has support at 10,716 and resistance at 11,130.