Pre Session Commentary - July 27 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as majority of Asian markets have opened with phenomenal gains. In the Domestic arena results of heavy weights like Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank will play a key role in guiding the traders’ sentiments. One could see some cautiousness trade at the beginning. Nonetheless, the opening of European markets will further decide the firmness in domestic arena as well.

On Friday, Indian markets closed higher on the back of bullish sentiments. The subdued opening along with profit booking pressures trapped the markets until the mid session. However the phenomenal quarterly results from majority of companies helped markets at broader level to trade in northward. Auto stocks were the charm of the day after Maruti Suzuki reported better than expected first quarter results. The company reported Q1FY10 net sales of Rs. 6,340 crore, a phenomenal growth of 34 per cent over the corresponding period previous year. Bharat Forge was the top gainer of the Auto Index with a gain of 14.06 per cent to Rs. 181.70. From the sectoral front Auto, Realty, Metal and CD led the markets with gains of 5.14%, 4.26%, 239% and 2.37% respectively. BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap index also gained by 1.67% and 1.81% respectively. Domestic markets are likely to trade positive today.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 147.92 points at 15,378.96 and NSE Nifty ended higher by 10 points at 4,533.75 BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed up by 88.44 points and 107.35 points at 5,381.81 and 6,050.20 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,418.61 and intraday low of 15,168.52.

On Friday, the US stock markets closed mixed. Weakness in tech stocks weighed on Nasdaq for is first loss in more than two weeks. Microsoft reported its earnings which were inline with the expectations however its double digit percentage decline in revenue caused its topline to come short of expectations. The weakness in Nasdaq caused it to lag other headline indices during the trading session. Nasdaq was down by nearly 2 per cent at the session’s low, however as the trading progressed it managed to pare off its early losses. On the other hand, health care provided leadership with a gain of 1.6% amid news from Reuters that a leader of House fiscal conservatives said health care reform talks fell apart and that he sees no possibility of a deal. US light crude oil futures for August delivery closed at $67.86 per barrel up by 1.0% on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed higher by 23.95 points at 9,093.24, NASDAQ index declined by 7.64 points to 1,965.90 and the S&P 500 (SPX) closed up by 2.97 points at 979.26.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading positive. Hang Seng is up by 357.72 points at 20,340.51. Japan''s Nikkei is trading up by 224.62 points at 10,169.17. Jakarta Composite is up by 20.28 points at 2,186.07.

Indian ADRs closed mixed on Friday. In the IT space, Satyam Computers was up 2.6%, Infosys was up 0.04%, Wipro was up 0.93% and Patni Computers was up 0.25%. In the banking space, ICICI Bank was down 5.13% and HDFC Bank was down 4.18%. In the telecom space, MTNL was up 3.21% and Tata Communication was down 0.86%. In other sectors, Sterlite Industries was up 1.53%, Dr Reddy''s Labs was up 1.84% and Tata Motors was up 6.65%.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net buyers in equity and net sellers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 5,307.00 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 45,97.10 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 139.00 Crore, while gross debt sold stood at Rs 545.40 Crore. The net investment of equity reported was Rs 709.90 Crore and net debt was Rs (406.40) Crore.

On Friday, the partially convertible rupee ended at Rs 48.22/23, 0.50% weaker than its previous close at 48.46/47. The rupee gained strength as domestic stock markets marked huge gains.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 51.87 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 6,846.64 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 110.26 Crore and total turnover was Rs 20,529.74 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Suzlon Energy with total volume traded 94517529 shares, followed by Unitech with 61567227, DLF with 19129135, Idea Cellular with 15286534 and Tata Steel with 14808926 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 710285 with a total turnover of Rs 15,612.20 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 741508 with a total turnover of Rs 22,416.4 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1418129 with a total turnover of Rs 32,321.61 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 72164 and notional turnover was Rs 2,231.02 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,574 and resistance at 4,622 and BSE Sensex has support at 15,468 and resistance at 15,612.