Pre Session Commentary - Sep 15 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as majority of Asian markets have also opened positive on the back of US markets closing higher. US markets have shown some firmness during yesterday’s trade and therefore positive sentiments in the domestic arena would get a lot of support. Liquidity in the markets across the world plays an important role now rather than any macro economic news and therefore one could expect markets trading firm at this level. Today the domestic markets are likely to trade range bound.

On Monday, breaking the past few days of rally session, the domestic market took a sharp turn to close in red terrain on intense profit booking. However, market cut off losses towards closing on some buying in key stocks. Intense selling dragged the domestic bourses lower on the first trading day of the week. Weak cues from the markets all over the world weighed on the sentiments as European stocks are trading with huge losses and Asian markets closed in red. Depressing US index futures also took huge beating on the domestic bourses. Benchmark indices were in narrow range today on continuous bouts of buying and selling. Buying in PSU stocks along with Bank and Oil & Gas and Auto stocks restricted the losses to some extent. The BSE Sensex ended below 16,250 level and NSE Nifty closed around 4,800 mark.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 50.11 points at 16,214.19 and NSE Nifty ended down by 20.95 points at 4,808.60. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 8.77 and 32.39 points at 5,930.38 and 7,133.36 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 16,252.18 and intraday low of 16,119.95.

On Monday, US markets closed higher. Weakness overseas and concerns regarding trade with China weighed on sentiment in the early going however as the markets progressed stocks managed to close with marginal gains. Sprint Nextel, provided the most leadership to the broader market this session. The stock benefited from news that Deutsche Telekom may be interested in making a bid for the company, though Deutsche Telekom later stated that it doesn''t plan to make a major U.S. purchase before year end. Amongst sectors, Utilities were the top most gainers with gains of 1.6%, followed by materials stocks with gains of 1.6% and financials with gains of 1.6% respectively. Crude oil futures for the month of October delivery fell by 0.6% at $68.85 barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed higher by 21.39 points at 9,626.80. NASDAQ index gained by 10.88 points at 2,091.78 and the S&P 500 (SPX) also inclined by 6.61 points to close at 1,049.34 points.
Indian ADRs ended mixed on Monday. In the IT space, Satyam Computers was up 0.31% and Patni Computers was up 0.55%. While Infosys was down 0.71% and Wipro was down 0.24%. In the banking space, HDFC Bank was up 0.8% while ICICI Bank was down 0.23%. In the telecom space, MTNL was down 0.53% and Tata Communication was down 2.97%. In other sectors, Dr Reddy''s Labs was up 1.33%, while Sterlite Industries was down 1.71% and Tata Motors was down 0.08%

The FIIs on Monday stood as net buyers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,660.80 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 541.60 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,330.20 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 304.60 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 330.60 Crore and Rs 237.10 Crore respectively.

On Monday, Indian Rupee closed at 48.73./74 per dollar, 0.52% stronger than its previous close at 48.48/49. The local stock markets traded on a weak note and therefore investors were apprehensive about inflow of green back.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 41.07 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,125.14 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 76.77 Crore and total turnover was Rs 13,939.40 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 34275003 shares, followed by Suzlon Energy with 27587272, DLF with 13042168 shares, Hindalco with 11761901 shares and Tata Steel with 9189386 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 527196 with a total turnover of Rs 12,113.36 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 520588 with a total turnover of Rs 17,011.43 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1122391 with a total turnover of Rs 27,059.86 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 53781 and notional turnover was Rs 1,846.90 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,754 and resistance at 4,856 and BSE Sensex has support at 16,052 and resistance at 16,315