Pre Session Commentary - Sep 4 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open with a minimal positive gain as there is lack of guidance from other markets. Markets across Asia are trading in a subdued manner as there is lack of driving news and therefore lackluster trading in domestic arena is likely to occur. The initial jobless claims data in US was little disappointing and therefore US markets also gyrated in a narrow range yesterday. In the domestic space markets are likely to trade range bound narrowly.

On Thursday, domestic market renounced all its’ gains to conclude its sea-saw movement on negative note after a high volatile session. The benchmark indices were on upbeat mood during early and afternoon trade on firm cues from Asian markets. In addition, positive US index futures also supported the sentiments. However, market exhibited volatility and pared gains during final trading hours on profit booking. Fluctuation in European stocks also added to instability, ahead of the European Central Bank’s meeting on interest rates. Meanwhile, India’s Inflation remained in negative for the 12th successive week, as it stood at (0.21%) for the week ended 22nd Aug 2009, as compared to (0.95%) for the previous week 15th August 2009. The BSE Sensex ended around 15,400 level and NSE Nifty closed below 4,600 mark.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 69.13 points at 15,398.33 and NSE Nifty ended down by 14.80 points at 4,593.55. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 12.77 and 48.80 points at 5,770.80 and 6,917.82 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,598.18 and intraday low of 15,356.72.

On Thursday, US stock markets closed mixed. The markets spent most of the time in a narrow range trading despite Chinese markets rebounding nearly 5% yesterday. The session was lackluster as there was no driving news, however disappointing jobless claims data influenced market sentiments to a large extent. Initial claims for the week ending Aug. 29 totaled 570,000, down just 4,000 from the previous week, but slightly more than the 564,000 that were expected. With the labor market mired in weakness, continuing claims jumped to 6.23 million from 6.14 million. Another economic indicator August ISM Services Index, also topped the consensus estimate of 48.0 by coming in at 48.4, a high for the year. US light crude oil futures for October delivery closed lower by 0.2% at $67.92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed higher by 63.94 points at 9,344.61, NASDAQ index closed higher by 16.13 points at 1,983.20 and the S&P 500 (SPX) also closed higher by 8.49 points at 1003.24.

Today the major stock markets in Asia are trading mixed. The Shanghai Composite is trading high by 5.72 at 2,850.74, Hang Seng is higher by 24.61 points at 19,786.29. Further Japan''s Nikkei is low by 48.41 points at 10,166.23. Strait times is also trading low by 7.85 points at 2,590.51. Taiwan Weighted is up by 45.49 points at 7,150.14.

Indian ADRs ended mostly in green, barring a few. In IT space, Infosys was up 2.1%, Satyam Computers was up 1.14%, Wipro was up 0.78% and Patni Computers was up 7.19%. In banking space, ICICI Bank was up 1.15% and HDFC Bank was up 0.44%. In Telecom space, Tata Communication was down 0.65% and MTNL was down 0.53%. In other sectors, Sterlite Industries was up 2.41%, Tata Motors was up 1.12% while Dr Reddy''s Labs was down 0.25%.

The FIIs on Thursday stood as net sellers in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 1,500.30 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 86.40 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,074.50 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 194.10 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs (574.20) Crore and Rs (107.70) Crore respectively.

On Thursday, Indian Rupee closed at 48.91/92 per dollar, 5 paisa stronger than its previous close at 48.96/97. The weakness of dollar as against its rival currencies helped local currency gain strength.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 40.18 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,132.57 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 82.03 Crore and total turnover was Rs 15,321.14 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Suzlon Energy with total volume traded 81374606 shares, followed by Unitech with 46342697, Reliance Comm with 19614054, DLF with 8159868 and Tata Steel with 7407734 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 683726 with a total turnover of Rs 14,801.09 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 486121 with a total turnover of Rs 15,372.91 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1315832 with a total turnover of Rs 30,954.67 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 54337 and notional turnover was Rs 1,793.86 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,538 and resistance at 4,645 and BSE Sensex has support at 15,252 and resistance at 15,486