Pre Session Commentary - June 24 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open negative as the US markets traded choppy and majority of Asian markets are trading mixed. The sentiments are weak across the globe and majority of Asian markets are trading paltry. Due to lack of news there could be a lackluster trade in the domestic arena as well. Broad based selling pressure could hamper the sentiments further.

On Tuesday, the domestic markets closed flat after a late recovery. The markets opened with a blood bath on the back of weak global cues and kept gyrating in the southward until mid trading session. However the positive opening of the European markets helped majority of frontline stocks to pull back the loss. Energy stocks like ONGC and Reliance Industries closed with remarkable gains of 3.3% and 3.26% at Rs. 1,026.45 and Rs. 2,016.05 respectively. Sectors like Oil & Gas, PSU and Power were the only gainers with 2.62%, 2.11% and 1.31% respectively. Mid cap and Small cap also managed to close flat towards the end. We expect the markets to be trading volatile.

The BSE Sensex closed flat at 14,324.01 and NSE Nifty ended with a marginal gain of 11.75 points at 4,247.00. BSE Mid Caps closed with a marginal gain of 11.83 points however Small Caps closed with a minimal loss of 7.17 points at 4,942.34 and 5,592.40 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 14,394.19 and intraday low of 14,016.95.

On Tuesday, the US Markets closed flat after a choppy trade. The May existing home sales data was the news of the day however it disappointed investors. The annualized existing home sales for the month of May recorded at 4.77 million units, which is the highest rate since October. However the month-over-month growth rate was at 2.4% from the previous month below the expected 3.0% month-over-month increase. The financial stocks gained by 1.7% as the widely followed analyst Richard Bove said that buying Citigroup now is like buying in 1990s. The entire trading volume across the broader level was paltry. The US light crude oil for August Futures delivery inclined by 2.6% at $69.25 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed low by 16.10 points at 8,322.91 the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) index declined by 1.27 points at 1,764.92 and the S&P 500 (SPX) gained by 2.06 points at 895.10.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. Hang Seng is up by 140.39 points at 17,678.76. Shanghai Composite is up by 16.16 points at 2,908.86. Japan''s Nikkei is trading low by 5.52 points at 9,544.09. Strait Times is up by 24.93 points at 2,251.03. KLSE Composite is low by 1.49 points at 1,044.48.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Tuesday. However, gainers outnumbered the losers. In the telecom space, MTNL was up 3.99% and Tata Communication was up 1.74%. In the IT space, Infosys was up 1.14%, Wipro was up 0.56% while Satyam Computers was down 0.31% and Patni Computers was down 0.67%. In the banking space, ICICI Bank was down 0.67% and HDFC Bank was down 3.24%. In other sectors, Sterlite Industries was up 3.67%, Dr Reddy''s Labs was up 2.23% and Tata Motors was up 0.99%.

The FIIs on Tuesday stood as net sellers in equity and net buyers in debt. The Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,617.20 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 430.40 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,814.20 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 180.40 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (197.00) Crore and Rs 249.90 Crore respectively.

On Tuesday, the partially convertible rupee closed at 48.56/57 per dollar, 0.04 paise lower than its previous close at 48.60/61. The local currency closed up due to phenomenal late recovery in the local stock markets.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 40.58 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,684.37 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 101.36 Crore and total turnover was Rs 18,823.30 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 79495752, followed by Suzlon Energy with 67785299, DLF with 17568518, Hindalco with 14223560 and NTPC with 13663924.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 942507 with a total turnover of Rs 19,451.09 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 562418 with a total turnover of Rs 30,245.25 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1522674 with a total turnover of Rs 32,804.47 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 44936 and notional turnover was Rs 2,572.24 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,189 and resistance at 4,332 and BSE Sensex has support at 14,164 and resistance at 14,412.