Sensex to open gap-down, correction to continue

Headlines for the day

Infrastructure sector growth slips to 4% in September

Hedging losses drag HCL's profit

NTPC's Gujarat plants to get cheap gas

Procter & Gamble plans to add half a billion users

Bank of Baroda's net profit jumps by over 60% in Q2FY10

Inflation figures to be out today

Events for the day

Major results: Alok Industries, Ansal Infrastructure, Apollo Hospital, Bank of India, BPCL, Cairn India, Crisil, Colgate Palmolive, Cummins India, Corporation Bank, IOB, DLF Ltd., Financial technologies, Glenmark Pharma, Grasim Industries, HDIL, ONGC, Patel Engineering, Opto Circuit, Sobha Developers, Sterlite Industries, P&G, PNB, RIL, RECL, Voltas, LIC Housing Finance and M&M

Major corporate action: Centurly Ply, Garware Offshore, Gateway Distillery, Jaiprakash Associate and Jayshree Cement's ex-date for the interim dividend, ex-date for bonus of Indian Oil Corporation in the ratio of 1:1

The Sensex is again expected open lower and have a gap-down opening, trade in the red, and remain volatile through the day. This is what the market has done in the last one week. Infact the global indicators that were fairly negative won't be able to stop the loses for the Sensex. On Wednesday, the major US and European indices closed in red with major loses of close to 2% each. While the major Asian markets, in today's trade, followed the global cues and were trading in red with loses in the range of 1.58%-4.24% each, with Shanghai Composite losing the least and Jakarta Composite losing the most. Besides, even Singapore Nifty that opened lower, at the time of writing this report was currently trading 75 points lower to its previous day’s settlement price. On the back of such major loses recorded by the global indices, there won't be any respite for the Sensex which may open lower with heavy loss and remain in the red and volatile through the day's trade. While the traders will be keen on watching inflation figures that will be out today. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test the 4875- 4900 range on the up side while on the down side it could find support at 4750 and 4710. The Sensex is likely to get support at 16000 and may face resistance at 16350.

The stocks in the US tumbled sharply on the back of weak-than-expected new home sales report, wherein major US indices closed with losses in the range of 1.21-2.67% each. Dow again closed with over 100 points loss for the third session in this week, it fell by 119 points or 1.21% lower at 9763, while S&P 500 slipped by 1.95% and Nasdaq that slumped the most among thses indices, fell by 2.67%.

Among the Indian ADRs trading on the US bourses, none managed to trade in the green. While the losses were in the range of 0.34% and 9.98%, wherein Tata Motors fell the least and Satyam slumped the most.

In the commodity space, Crude oil prices fell sharply for the second day, with the Nymex light crude oil for November series declining by $2.09 to close at $77.46 a barrel. In the metals space, the Comex Gold for December series declined by $4.90 to settle at $1030.50 a troy ounce, while Comex Silver for December series fell by $0.30 to settle at $16.24 a troy ounce.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On October 28, 2009, FIIs were the net buyers of the Indian Stocks in the tune of Rs1341.00 crore (with the gross purchase of Rs4989.80 crore and gross sales of Rs3648.80 crore). While the Domestic mutual funds mutual funds, on October 27, 2009, were the net seller of the stocks in the tune of Rs637.60 crore (with gross purchase of Rs912.80 crore and gross sales of Rs1550.40 crore).