Pre Session Commentary - Sep 22 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open marginally positive as majority of Asian markets have also opened in green. There could be a subdued opening due to lack of guidance from other markets. Domestic markets have already reached its peak after some remarkable gains during the last week. However from this level domestic liquidity and firmness of international markets would play a crucial role. Today domestic markets are likely to trade range bound.

On Friday, Indian market closed the today’s volatile session on flat note as investors booked profits following steep rise in previous sessions. Market continued to exhibit instability, as most of the Asian stocks ended lower, which led selling pressure in the domestic stocks. However, stocks tried to recover till mid session and again during final trading hours on gains in Auto stocks. Further, the negative opening of European markets hit the sentiments though they recovered later and contributed a bit of recovery in domestic stocks during last hours. Concerns regarding poor rains also contributed to the uneasiness of investors, as the South West monsoon rains were 41% below average in the week to 16 September 2009, according to the government-run India Meteorological Department (IMD). The BSE Sensex ended above 16,700 level and NSE Nifty closed above 4,950 mark.

The BSE Sensex closed marginally higher by 30.19 points at 16,741.30 and NSE Nifty ended slightly up by 10.50 points at 4,976.05. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 27.61 and 56.14 points at 6,171.23 and 7,373.64 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 16,765.03 and intraday low of 16,610.05.

On Monday, US markets closed mixed. Participants were apprehensive about the further upward movement of markets and therefore there was broad based selling pressure. Amongst the 10 major sectors in the S&P 500, health care was the only to march northward during the entire session. It finished 0.7% higher as biotechs climbed 2.4%. Tech stocks finished marginally up, but Dell (DELL 16.01, -0.68) reported a loss after it announced that it will acquire Perot Systems (PER 29.56, +11.65) for $3.9 billion, or $30 per share in cash. The offer price is nearly 70% premium to the closing price of PER last Friday. Financials, energy stocks and material stocks were the laggards of the day and they shed 0.9% each. Crude oil futures for the month of October delivery fell by 3.2 per cent at $69.71 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 41.34 points at 9,778.86. NASDAQ index gained by 5.18 points at 2,138.04 and the S&P 500 (SPX) declined by 3.64 points to close at 1,064.66 points.
Today the major stock markets in Asia are trading positive. The Shanghai Composite is flat at 2,963.95, Hang Seng is higher by 64.42 points at 21,537.27. Further Japan''s Nikkei is low by 73.26 points at 10,370.54. Strait times is trading up by 14.31 points at 2,662.22. Kospi is up by 18.64 points at 1,714.14.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Monday. However, losers outnumbered the gainers. In the IT space, Satyam Computers was down 3.24%, Wipro was down 0.24% and Patni Computers was down 0.87%. However, Infosys was up 0.6%. In the banking space, ICICI Bank was down 0.99% and HDFC Bank was down 0.75%. In the telecom space, MTNL was up 1.63% and Tata Communication was up 3.28%. In other sectors, Sterlite Industries was down 1.78%, Tata Motors was down 0.39% and Dr Reddy''s Labs was down 0.33%.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net buyers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 6,074.90 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 297.40 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 3,411.70 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 159.40 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 2,663.10 Crore and Rs 138.10 Crore respectively.

On Friday, Indian Rupee closed at 48.13./14 per dollar, fractionally stronger than its previous close at 48.15./16. Positive trading in local stock markets helped boost the morale of traders in local currency.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 53.90 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 6,309.48 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 102.18 Crore and total turnover was Rs 19,415.27 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 39271942, followed by Suzlon Energy with 28041017, Hindalco with 23495959, Tata Steel with 11142570 and Bharti Airtel with 10047617 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 515177 with a total turnover of Rs 12,603.34 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 747297 with a total turnover of Rs 24,679.11 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1201835 with a total turnover of Rs 29,560.94 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 69878 and notional turnover was Rs 2,444.73 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,910 and resistance at 5,014 and BSE Sensex has support at 16,678 and resistance at 16,815.