Pre Session Commentary - July 10 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive. The Infosys results have surprised the market with better than expected quarterly results. The Q1FY10 PAT recorded at Rs. 1,527 crore marginally lower than Rs. 1,613 crore in the previous quarter. Its revenues declined by a minimal 3% at Rs. 5,472 crore as against Rs. 5,635 crore QoQ. Despite lower topline numbers, the company’s operating profit margin improved by 50bps at 34.1% from 33.6% QoQ. The domestic markets are likely to take a positive thrust from Infosys, however the cautiousness would prevail at the broader level.

On Thursday, domestic markets closed flat amidst lack of news and mixed cues from the Asian markets. The markets opened in a subdued note and showed little sing of rebound from yesterday’s losses. However as the session progressed the benchmark indices kept gyrating range bound. There was immense cautiousness amongst traders and therefore despite northward movement of European markets, the domestic benchmark indices closed flat. Sectors like Metal, HC, FMCG and Oil & Gas were the top gainers of the day with gains of 1.53%, 1.05%, 1.02% and 0.91% respectively. BSE Midcap closed with a gain of 0.58% whereas Smallcap ended flat. Today domestic markets are likely to trade range bound.

The BSE Sensex closed low by 11.69 points at 13,757.46 and NSE Nifty ended flat at 4,080.95. BSE Mid Cap closed with a marginal gain of 27.95 points at 4,810.79 and Small Cap closed with losses of 7.63 points at 4,810.79. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 13,879.18 and intraday low of 13,643.97.

Thursday, the US stocks markets closed flat. The day’s session was a choppy trade however financials made a rally after Goldman Sachs was upgraded by an analyst. Further the stocks made modest gains following Alcoa''s better than estimated earnings. Alcoa reported less than expected quarterly losses. It has lost 26 cents per share versus a profit of 66 cents a year ago. But the shortfall was narrower than analyst''s estimates. On the economic front, the number of weekly jobless claims fell to 565,000 last week from a revised 617,000 the previous week but was short of the economist''s expectation of 603,000 new claims. But continuing claims rose to a new record high 6,883,000. US light crude oil for August Futures delivery closed with a marginal gain of 0.4 per cent at $60.41 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was up by 4.76 points at 8,183.17. NASDAQ index gained 5.38 points to 1,752.55 and the S&P 500 (SPX) grew by 3.12 points to close at 1,752.55 points.

Indian ADRs ended in green on Thursday. In the IT space, Satyam Computers was up 9.73%, Wipro was up 3.39%, Infosys was up 0.58% and Patni Computers was up 1%. In the telecom space, Tata Communication was up 1.4% and MTNL was up 0.8%. In the banking space, HDFC Bank was up 1.88% and ICICI Bank was up 1%. In other sectors, Sterlite Industries was up 5.67%, Tata Motors was up 3.66% and Dr Reddy''s Labs was up 0.66%.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading flat. Hang Seng is up by 38.57 points at 17,829.16. Shanghai Composite is flat at 3,124.79. Japan''s Nikkei is trading flat at 9,295.05. Strait Times is low by 26.59 points at 2,286.36.

On Thursday, the partially convertible rupee ended at Rs 48.70, 0.37% stronger than its previous close at 48.88. The rupee gained strength as exporters and banks sold dollar foreseeing its weakness.

The FIIs on Thursday stood as net buyers in equity and net sellers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 3,451.00 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 72.60 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,675.50 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 90.10 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was Rs 775.50 Crore and net debt was Rs (17.50) Crore.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 36.66 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 4,894.55 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 93.86 Crore and total turnover was Rs 15,951.48 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 193843547 shares, followed by Suzlon Energy with 65514790, DLF with 17922615, ICICI Bank with 11362660 and SAIL with 11361791 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 681519 with a total turnover of Rs 13,361.97 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 543872 with a total turnover of Rs 14,407.52 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1128744 with a total turnover of Rs 23,900.91 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 46188 and notional turnover was Rs 1,376.83 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,045 and resistance at 4,148 and BSE Sensex has support at 13,612 and resistance at 13,915.