Pre Session Commentary - June 22 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as majority of Asian markets have opened in green. Banking and electronics stocks are on the surge path as the Japanese business confidence data showed improvement for the first time in the past three quarters and demand for services has inclined. The Sentiment among large manufacturers increased to -13.2 points compared with a record low of -66 three months ago. In the domestic arena banking stocks could be in the limelight.

On Friday, the domestic markets closed in green. The markets finally snapped the three consecutive day losses to close in green after a firm northward trading. The markets opened with a positive gap and managed to trade up until the last one hour trade when profit booking pressures pulled the benchmark indices to southward. There was a broad based rally across the markets and sectors like CG, Realty, Metal and IT gained remarkably by 4.58%, 3.13%, 2.81% and 2.32% respectively. Mid cap and Small cap also gained by 1.68% and 0.82% respectively. We expect the markets to be trading positive.

The BSE Sensex closed with a gain of 256.36 points at 14,521.89 and NSE Nifty ended with gain of 62.20 points at 4,313.60. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 81.87 points and 45.52 points at 4,958.73 and 5,617.96 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,559.08 and intraday low of 14,179.77.

On Friday, the US Markets closed mixed. There was slow news that kept the markets in a lackluster trade. The financial and Technology stocks managed to gain the momentum at the late trading session. The financial sector was a laggard during the opening trade however as the day advanced the sector closed with a moderate gain of 1.7%. Blackstone Group was in the limelight after the Wall Street Journal reported that China Investment Corp. is poised to invest $500 million in a hedge fund unit of the investment services company. In the Tech space Microsoft was the out performer after company’s stock was graded as Buy by Goldman Sachs. The US light crude oil for July delivery closed lower by 2.6% at $69.55 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed low by 15.87 points at 8,539.73 the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index closed up by 19.75 points at 1,827.47 and the S&P 500 (SPX) closed up by 2.86 points at 921.23.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading positive. Hang Seng is up by 332.87 points at 18,253.80. Shanghai Composite is up by 26.131 points at 2,906.623. Japan''s Nikkei is trading high by 9.76 points at 9,796.02. Strait Times is also up by 13.01 points at 2,286.19. KLSE Composite is up by 5.09 points at 1,059.50.

Indian ADRs ended mixed. In the telecom space, MTNL was down 13.67% but Tata Comm was up 1.21%. In the IT space, Infosys was up 2.52%, Satyam was up 1.39%, Patni was up 2.86%, while Wipro was down 1.05%. In the Banking lot, ICICI Bank gained 3.15% and HDFC Bank was up 1.67%.In the other space, Dr Reddys was up 0.59%, Sterlite gained 0.33% and Tata Motors rose 1.68%.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net sellers in equity and debt. The Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,138.40 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 100.70 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,654.30 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 318.10Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (515.90) Crore and Rs (217.50) Crore respectively.

On Friday, the partially convertible rupee closed at 48.09/10 per dollar, 0.2% stronger than its previous close at 48.21/22. The local currency gained strength after the local stock markets closed positive after three consecutive day losses.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 50.42 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,959.89 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 105.95 Crore and total turnover was Rs 18,636.69 Crore.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 888288 with a total turnover of Rs 18,534.78 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 454913 with a total turnover of Rs 25,043.67 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1524858 with a total turnover of Rs 33,539.34 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 42982 and notional turnover was Rs 2,480.07 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,379 and resistance at 4,432 and BSE Sensex has support at 14,615 and resistance at 14,865.