Pre Session Commentary - July 31 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as majority of Asian markets have opened in the positive territory. There was a lot of short covering in yesterday''s trade due to F&O expiry, which helped benchmark indices mark gains. There is some positive momentum prevailing across the world which will benefit to bolster the domestic sentiments as well. Broad based buying effort could emerge during the day''s trade.

On Thursday, domestic markets closed higher. The domestic market rebounded sharply from initial losses to close near day’s high after exhibiting instability during the early trading hours. Speculators contributed to upward movement as indulged in covering short positions on the last day of the expiry of the July contracts in derivatives. Firm trading in European markets along with recovery in Asian markets and higher US index futures also added to the positive sentiments. In addition, market gained ground during afternoon trade after initial slide, also on encouraging first-quarter earnings by State Bank of India. The bank reported 42.03% rise in its net profit in first quarter. Meanwhile, inflation for week ended July 18 it came in at -1.54% as compared to -1.17% for the previous week ended July 11, 2009. The BSE Sensex ended above 15,350 level and NSE Nifty closed above 4,550 mark. Today domestic markets are likely to trade positive.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 241.50 points or (1.41%) at 15,387.96 and NSE Nifty ended up by 57.95 points or (1.28%) at 4,571.45. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains 29.31 and 49.26 points at 5,506.40 and 6,204.01 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,409.91 and intraday low of 15,065.48.

On Thursday, the US stock markets closed higher. Better than expected earnings report and lack of negative news helped markets gain at broader level. The markets witnessed broad based buying effort along with shot covering. The material sector was in the limelight supported by higher commodity prices and also Dow Chemical (DOW 21.51, +1.24). Visa (V 67.05, +0.27) and MasterCard (MA 194.17, +5.62) both reported upside earnings results of their own and also provided support to the financial sector. The northward movement in the markets was supported by news that the four-week moving average for initial jobless claims fell to its lowest level in months, even though weekly claims climbed more than expected. Continuing claims declined more than expected for another straight week. Continuing claims now stand at levels not seen since April, but many economists caution that the labor market remains far from good. US light crude oil futures for September delivery closed at $67 per barrel up by 5.8% on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed higher by 83.74 points at 9,154.16, NASDAQ index inclined by 16.54 points to 1,984.30 and the S&P 500 (SPX) closed higher by 11.45 points at 986.60.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading positive. Hang Seng is up by 419.65 points at 20,653.73. Shanghai Composite is up by 40.289 points at 3,361.849. Japan''s Nikkei is trading up by 171.77 points at 10,336.98. Strait Times is up by 17.20 points at 2,653.39.

Indian ADRs ended in green on Thursday. In the banking space, ICICI Bank was up 4.47% and HDFC Bank was up 3.93%. In the telecom space, Tata Communication was up 2.99% and MTNL was up 1.86%. In the IT space, Satyam Computers was up 2.18%, Infosys was up 1.56%, Wipro was up 1.77% and Patni Computers was up 20.45%. In other sectors, Sterlite Industries was up 5.33%, Tata Motors was up 3.15% and Dr Reddy''s Labs was up 0.9%.

The FIIs on Thursday stood as net buyers in equity and net sellers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,851.70 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,712.60 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 387.20 Crore, while gross debt sold stood at Rs 0.00 Crore. The net investment of equity reported was Rs 139.10 Crore and net debt was Rs 387.20 Crore.

On Thursday, the partially convertible rupee ended at Rs 48.34/35, 0.16% stronger than its previous close at 48.42/43. The rupee gained on the back of phenomenal resurgence in the local stock markets.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 39.47 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 6,065.04 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 103.33 Crore and total turnover was Rs 23,186.09 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 69415188 shares, followed by Suzlon Energy with 47803705, Tata Steel with 19407942, SAIL with 18185228 and DLF with 14563513 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 869901 with a total turnover of Rs 19,296.52 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 1066247 with a total turnover of Rs 32,282.30 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1783295 with a total turnover of Rs 40,648.73 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 75027 and notional turnover was Rs 2,249.84 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,598 and resistance at 4,672 and BSE Sensex has support at 15,412 and resistance at 15,575.