Pre Session Commentary - Sep 3 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open positive as majority of Asian markets have opened with remarkable gains. The Asian markets have rebound today after suffering losses in the past few days, which will also help domestic as well as European traders gain some firmness. In the domestic arena one could witness some buying momentum across broader level, however subdued trading with low volume is inevitable during the day’s trading.

On Wednesday, Markets closed the today’s volatile session on a lackluster note after showing gains during the mid session on the back of far end profit booking across the selective indices. Stocks managed to gain ground after subdued opening on some buying sentiment. However, market pared most of its gains during last hours on weak cues from the global markets and lower US index futures. Investors selected to tread a cautious path due to lack of prominent triggers. The BSE Sensex ended below 15,600 level and NSE Nifty closed below 4,650 mark. From the sectoral front, Realty, Auto, Capital Goods, Power, Bank and Metal stocks witnessed most of the selling from these baskets. BSE Midcap and Smallcap stocks also remained under pressure. However, IT, Teck and Pharma stocks gained favour from the market.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 83.73 points or (0.54%) at 15,467.46 and NSE Nifty ended down by 17 points or (0.37%) at 4,608.35. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with losses of 39.46 and 22.15 points at 5,758.03 and 6,869.02 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,628.10 and intraday low of 15,392.68.

On Wednesday, US stock markets ended down. The markets traded range bound during the day with low volume trade. Economic data dominated the market headlines. ADP Employment Change Report for August reported that 298,000 private jobs were lost last month which proved disappointing since economists were expecting 250,000 job losses. In the FOMC minutes of meeting conducted on August 15, the FOMC has expressed concerns about the weakness in labor markets and job losses. Further on the brighter side, productivity for second quarter surged a remarkable 6.6% which is sharpest since 2003 and also better than expected 6.4%. On the other hand Factory orders made during the month of July surged 1.3% but still short of 2.2% that was generally accepted. US light crude oil futures for October delivery closed flat at $68.05 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 29.93 points at 9,280.67, NASDAQ index closed higher by 1.82 points at 1,967.07 and the S&P 500 (SPX) also closed lower by 3.29 points at 994.75.

Today the major stock markets in Asia opened positive. The Shanghai Composite is trading high by 87.58 at 2,802.55, Hang Seng is higher by 172.05 points at 19,694.05. Further Japan''s Nikkei is low by 41.78 points at 10,238.68. Strait times is also trading up by 23.68 points at 2,593.61. Taiwan Weighted is up by 62.63 points at 7,102.40.

Indian ADRs ended mixed in yesterday''s trade. In the IT space, Satyam was the top gainer with 1.99% gain. Infosys & Patni gained 0.70% & 0.24% respectively while Wipro was down 1.53%. In the telecom space, Tata Communication was up 1.89%. MTNL was down 0.53%. In the banking space, HDFC Bank surged more than 1%. ICICI Bank gained 0.5%. Tata Motors was the biggest loser with 2.03% loss. Sterlite Industries was down 0.77%. Dr. Reddys ended in green with modest gain of 0.32%.

The FIIs on Wednesday stood as net sellers in equity and net buyers in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,596.80 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 519.50 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,899.30 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 286.10 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (302.50) Crore and Rs 233.40 Crore respectively.

On Wednesday, Indian Rupee closed at 48.96/97 per dollar, 0.2% weaker than its previous close at 49.05/06. The green back’s weakness against other currencies helped local currency gain strength.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 44 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,440.54 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 93.21 Crore and total turnover was Rs 16,832.45 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 79736359 shares, followed by Suzlon Energy with 55055589, DLF with 13157780, Reliance Comm with 12299261 and Tata Steel with 10591265 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 771316 with a total turnover of Rs 16,773.23 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 535275 with a total turnover of Rs 16,858.45 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1196136 with a total turnover of Rs 28,084.99 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 52984 and notional turnover was Rs 1,771.10 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,544 and resistance at 4,665 and BSE Sensex has support at 15,236 and resistance at 15,598