Pre Session Commentary - Aug 6 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to have gap down opening as US markets ended lower on Wednesday and Asian markets are trading mixed. Unsatisfactory readings in US on the service sector along with employment situation and a cautious outlook from P&G contributed to the downward journey. The ISM services index for July unexpectedly slipped to 46.4 from 47 in June. Market is expected to witness volatility during the trading session.

On Wednesday, Market opened on pleasant note tracking some positive cues from the US markets. The US stocks markets closed higher on Tuesday after strong increase in pending home sales and considerable strength in the financial sector has led the markets to gained momentum in the late trade. However, Indian stocks turned weak in line with weak Asian markets as Japanese automakers fell on Toyota''''s big loss. Further, market continued to trade with negative bias amid instability. During last trading hours, benchmark indices managed to move into green on upward movement in key stocks. Finally, market closed with good gains in line with positive European markets that contributed to the bounce back in the market movement. From the sectoral front, most of the buying was seen in Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, IT, Teck and PSU stocks. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices also remained in buyer’s radar. However, Realty, Auto and FMCG stocks witnessed most of the selling from these baskets.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 72.85 points or (0.46%) at 15,903.83 and NSE Nifty ended up by 13.65 points or (0.29%) at 4,694.15. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 6.60 and 63.43 points at 5,695.33 and 6,397.38 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,973.10 and intraday low of 15,695.11.

On Wednesday, the US stock markets ended down regardless of a late effort to revert losses. Unsatisfactory readings on the service sector along with employment situation and a cautious outlook from P&G contributed to the downward journey. The ISM services index for July unexpectedly slipped to 46.4 from 47 in June. Besides, the latest ADP employment report indicated that 3.71 lakh jobs were slashed in July. US light crude oil futures for September delivery closed at $71.97 per barrel up by 0.8 % on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 39.22 points at 9,280.97, NASDAQ index declined by 18.26 points to 1,993.05 and the S&P 500 (SPX) closed lower by 2.93 points at 1,002.72.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. Hang Seng is up by 86.19 points at 20,580.96 followed by Japan''s Nikkei is trading up by 98.22 points at 10,350.75. However, Shanghai Composite is down by 83.53 points at 3,344.97 and Taiwan Weighted is low by 29.42 points at 6,818.82.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Wednesday. In the telecom space, MTNL was down 3.63% and Tata Communication was down 1.59%. In the banking space, HDFC Bank was down 0.51% while ICICI Bank was up 0.09%. In the IT space, Infosys was down 1.06% while Wipro was up 0.39%, Satyam Computers was up 2.59% and Patni Computers was up 1.09%. In other sectors, Tata Motors was down 1.61%, Dr Reddy''s Labs was down 1.16% while Sterlite Industries was up 1.51%.

The FIIs on Wednesday stood as net buyers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,781.40 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,573.70 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 3,110.60 Crore, while gross debt sold stood at Rs 429.60 Crore. The net investment of equity reported was Rs 207.80 Crore and net debt was Rs 2,681.00 Crore.

On Wednesday, the partially convertible rupee ended at Rs 47.52/53, 0.44% stronger than its previous close at 47.73/74. The rupee gained on the back of positive trading in the local stock markets.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 46.84 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 6,009.87 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 95.51 Crore and total turnover was Rs 18,062.01 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 56039277 shares, followed by Suzlon Energy with 32578581, Hindalco with 19760095, Tata Steel with 109852.06 and DLF with 9671208 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 812264 with a total turnover of Rs 17,902.73 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 567699 with a total turnover of Rs 18,212.03 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1102603 with a total turnover of Rs 26,133.71 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 45640 and notional turnover was Rs 1,480.55 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,616 and resistance at 4,748 and BSE Sensex has support at 15,653 and resistance at 16,099.