Pre Session Commentary - Apr 8 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open negative after a holiday yesterday as the cues from the global markets are not in favor. The US market tumbled on Tuesday on the back of fears that the earning of the companies will be hammered in the first quarter due to recession. Followed this, the Asian markets also opened with negative gap on earnings fears. Also, fears regarding the earnings for the March quarter and uncertainty about general elections may keep investor sentiment unresponsive. The market will hunt for some news to take further directions. So one could anticipate some profit booking during the trading session after consecutive rally in the last week.

On Monday, the domestic markets closed with phenomenal gains. The sentiments were very strong since the positive gap opening, however later the profit booking pressures pared some gains. The Asian markets were trading firm with green numbers and the remarkable opening of the European markets further supported the domestic markets’ sentiments. Sectors like CD, CG, Metal and Auto witnessed huge buying as they gained 5.84, 3.75%, 3.65% and 3.59% respectively. However FMCG was the only sector that was hammered. The market was closed on Tuesday, for a holiday. During the session we expect some profit booking.

The BSE Sensex closed with gain of 186.04 points at 10,534.87 and NSE Nifty ended with gain of 45.55 points at 3,256.60. BSE Mid Caps and BSE Small Caps ended with gains of 77.66 points and 110.32 points at 3,203.08 and 3,547.24 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 10,654.89 and intraday low of 10,410.44.

On Tuesday, the US Markets ended lower for second successive day, ahead of earnings season and concerns about the banking industry. There was absence of any major headline, consequently market participants left to prepare for earnings season. The financial sector performed in-line with much of the broader market for almost the entire session, but a late selling effort forced the sector to close at its session low with a 3.2% loss. The US light crude oil for May delivery faced selling pressure and declined by 3.5% to settle at $49.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed low by 186.29 points at 7,789.56 the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index declined by 45.1 points to close at 1,561.61 and the S&P 500 (SPX) dropped by 19.93 points to close at 815.55.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading in red. Shanghai composite is low by 47.44 points at 2,391.74. Hang Seng is trading in extremely down by 545.77 points at 14,383.20 followed by Japan''s Nikkei which is down by 174.22 points at 8,658.63, Strait Times is low by 37.37 points at 1,765.02. Further, Taiwan Weighted is down with losses of 72.55 points at 5,504.30 and Seoul Composite is also down by 27.26 points at 1,272.84 respectively.

Indian ADRs ended lower. In technology sector, Infosys ended down by 0.42% along with Satyam by 8.93%. Further, Wipro lost 3.72% while Patni Computers remained unchanged. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank lost 2.15% and 3.48 respectively. Further, in telecommunication sector Tata Communication and MTNL dropped by 1.34% and 6.27% respectively.

The FIIs on Monday stood as net buyers in equity and net sellers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,761.50 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 291.10 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,065.30 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 299.80 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 696.30 Crore and Rs (8.70) Crore respectively.

On Monday, the Rupee closed at Rs. 50.05, 0.58% stronger that its previous close of Rs. 50.34. The local currency appreciated on the back of phenomenal gain in the stock markets increasing hopes of foreign currency inflow.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 45.71 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 4,690.16 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 104.74 Crore and total turnover was Rs 14,844.12 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Suzlon Energy with 60222633 shares, Unitech with 42996319 shares, ICICI Bank with 21989218 shares, SAIL with 17256891 shares followed by Reliance Comm with 17251478 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 751043 with a total turnover of Rs 11,746.59 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 490631 with a total turnover of Rs 16,414.83 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1139046 with a total turnover of Rs 18,716.09 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 43270 and notional turnover was Rs 1,567.81 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 3,196 and resistance at 3,306 and BSE Sensex has support at 10,214 and resistance at 10,712.