Pre Session Commentary - Apr 9 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as majority of Asian markets have opened positive and the US markets closed in green. The phenomenal recovery and a positive trend on the last session of yesterday’ trade shows some sign of firmness amongst the bulls. The positive sentiments are likely to help markets sustain the Bull Run and make new support levels. During the later session of the day’s trade investors would track the movements of the Asian and European markets as well.

On Wednesday, the domestic markets emerged as a sole gainer in the Asian markets. The day’s session started with a negative gap opening on the back of bearish cues from other Asian markets. The buying sentiments however emanated after the post mid-session as heavy weight stocks recovered phenomenally. The European markets were trading mixed and hardly influenced the sentiments of domestic investors. Aggressive buying was witnessed in sectors like Realty and FMCG. On the other hand madcap and small cap stocks were in the limelight. The markets touched six months high today and have gained 33.5% on its 2009 low on March 6. Sectors like Realty, CD, FMCG, PSU and Oil & Gas witnessed huge buying as they gained 4.74%, 4.62%, 4.47%, 3.54% and 3.24% respectively. However Bankex was the only sector that was hammered. During the session we expect the markets to be trading positive with an essence of mild volatility.

The BSE Sensex closed with gain of 207.47 points at 10,742.34 and NSE Nifty ended with gain of 86.35 points at 3,342.95. BSE Mid Caps and BSE Small Caps ended with gains of 99.51 points and 158.73 points at 3,302.59 and 3,705.97 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 10,778.11 and intraday low of 10,171.91.

On Wednesday, the US Markets closed positive as the Treasury extends the bailout funds to insurers. Markets opened on positive note backed by news that the Treasury is planning to extend bailout funds to insurers. However despite the news the financial markets were the laggards during the day’s trade. The bad news came up from the FOMC minutes that the February housing starts may not be the beginning of the new trend. The earnings season seems to kick off as the as Dow component Alcoa unofficially kicked off with a deeper than expected loss. The US light crude oil for May delivery inclined by 0.6% to settle at $49.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed high by 47.55 points at 7,837.11 the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index inclined by 29.05 points to close at 1,590.66 and the S&P 500 (SPX) inclined by 9.61 points to close at 824.16.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading positive. Shanghai composite is up by 3.39 points at 2,350.78. Hang Seng is trading up by 305.52 points at 14,780.41 followed by Japan''s Nikkei which is up by 224.18 points at 8,819.19, Strait Times is up by 34.81 points at 1,818.77. While Taiwan Weighted is up with gains of 172.44 points at 5,616 and Seoul Composite points is also up by 36.07 points at 1,298.14 respectively.

Indian ADRs ended mostly higher. In technology sector, Infosys ended up by 2.55% along with Wipro by 10.71%. Further, Patni Computers gained 4.72% while Satyam closed lower by 3.92%. In banking sector ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 4.54% and 2.18% respectively. In telecommunication sector Tata Communication and MTNL advanced by 5.75% and 5.20% respectively.

The FIIs on Wednesday stood as net buyers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,619.80 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 1101.00 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,447.50 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 315.50 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 172.30 Crore and Rs 785.50 Crore respectively.

On Wednesday, the Rupee closed at Rs. 50.19/20, 0.28% weaker than its previous close of Rs. 50.05. The local currency closed weaker due to the early losses in the stock markets however managed to pare off an early trough of 50.67.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 57.23 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,437.91 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 124.13 Crore and total turnover was Rs 17,605.82 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with 79449575 shares, Suzlon Energy with 45768596 shares, DLF with 20913995 shares, ICICI Bank with 18592959 shares followed by Hindalco with 15897043 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 1108333 with a total turnover of Rs 17,249.62 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 555133 with a total turnover of Rs 18,909.68 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1532903 with a total turnover of Rs 25,131.46 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 58922 and notional turnover was Rs 2,174.39 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 3,303 and resistance at 3,385 and BSE Sensex has support at 10,575 and resistance at 10,910.