Post Market Commentary

The market closed with marginal gains on the first day of the year 2008. Soon after the firm starts to the market it pared its entire initial gains. The market got the momentum towards the end of the session but the volatility ruled the market throughout the trading session. Most the Asian Markets are remain closed toady for the celebration of the New Year. The Realty and Power indices attract the investor''s confidence as most buying is seen from these baskets. As usual the inevestor''s showed more interest in buying the Small Caps and Mid Caps scrips as they closed higher by 145.54 points and 354.70 points at 9,935.03 and 13,703.07 respectively. The BSE Sensex closed marginally higher by 13.72 points at 20,300.71 and NSE Nifty grew by 5.75 points to close at 6,144.35.

BSE Power index surged 98.81 points to close at 4,647.66. Scrips that grew are Reliance energy (6.76%), Tata Power (5.33%), NTPC (2.70%), Torrent Power (2.02%), Power Grid (1.91%) and GVK Power (1.30%).

BSE FMCG index closed up by 55.15 points at 2,375.07. Scrips that jumped are Rei Agro (5%), ITC (3.47%), Marico (3.20%), Tata Tea (2.36%), Dabur (2.10%) .

BSE Metal index grew by 41.27 points to close at 20,061.49. Scrips that gained are Gujarat NRE (13.77%), SH. Precoated (3.99%), Nalco (3.24%), Maharash Sea (1.56%) and Sesa Goa (1.43%).BSE Realty index closed higher by 310.47 points at 13,037.89. Scris that grew are HDIL (6.59%), IndiaBull Real (5.78%), Parsavnath (5.53%), Unitech (4.12%).

BSE Oil & Gas index fell by 20.72 points to close at 13,280.88 as Cairn India (3.80%), Indian Oil (2.18%), Reliance (1.18%), HPCL (0.76%) and BPCL (0.72%) closed in red.

BSE Bankex index grew by 92.31 points to close at 11,510.31. Scrips that gained are IOB (8.93%), CentBOP (8.28%), Allahabad Bank (8.56%), Andhra Bank (5.67%), Union Bank (4.89%) and BOB (3.31%).

BSE IT index fell 58.11 points to close at 4,471.48. Scrips that fell are Mphasis (3.25%), NIIT Ltd. (2.58%), TCS (2.74%), Wipro (1.90%) and Satyam (1.24%).

Sensex gains in lacklustre New Year trades

It has been a quiet start for the markets in the New Year. As most of the Asian markets were closed on account of New Year, the Sensex resumed 38 points above its previous close of 20,325. But, slipped immediately to touch the day's low of 20,220 on the back of selling in information technology, oil and consumer durables stocks. However, selective buying in index pivotal, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and power stocks helped the Sensex enter the green once again and touch the day's high of 20,395. Lack of buying interest kept the market in a range thereafter. After hovering around its previous close in the afternoon, the Sensex finally closed the session with a gain of 14 points at 20,301. Broad based Nifty closed at 6,148, up nine points.

Broader markets outperformed the frontliners giving markets positive breadth. Of the 2,934 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 2,282 stocks advanced, 626 stocks declined and 26 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Realty index moved up by 2.44% at 13,038 followed by the BSE FMCG index (up 2.38% at 2,375) and the BSE Power index (up 2.17% at 4,648). However, the BSE CD index, the BSE CG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE IT index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE Teck index fell around 1% each.

Reliance Energy witnessed strong buying interest and soared 6.76% at Rs2,279, ITC rose 3.47% at Rs218, Grasim Industries was up 3.03% at Rs3,762, Tata Motors shot up by 2.82% at Rs763, NTPC jumped 2.70% at Rs257, HLL added 1.96% at Rs218 and HDFC gained 1.61% at Rs2,919. However, TCS slipped 2.74% at Rs1,054, Bharti Airtel lost 2.71% at Rs968, Wipro dipped 1.90% at Rs516 and Satyam Computer was down 1.24% at Rs444.

Over 2.41 crore GV Films shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (2.38 crore shares), GTL Infrastructure (1.50 crore shares), Centurion Bank of Punjab (1.50 crore shares) and Hindustan Motors (1.15 crore shares).

Valuewise, Reliance Energy registered a turnover of Rs311 crore on the BSE followed by Essar Oil (Rs247 crore), IFCI (Rs232 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs208 crore) and GTL Infrastructure (Rs152 crore).

Sensex settles a tad above 20,300

The market posted marginal gains on day one of calendar 2008. Trading for the day began on a firm note. The market slipped into negative zone in mid-afternoon trade before recovering from lower level later.

ITC and Reliance Energy hit all-time highs. FMCG, real estate, hotel and power shares gained while IT and consumer durables shares declined. The market breadth was strong. BSE Mid-Cap and BSE Small-Cap indices struck record highs today.

Most of the Asian and European markets were closed today, 1 January 2008, for the New Year holiday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 13.72 points or 0.07% to 20,300.71. Sensex opened 16.38 points higher at 20,325.27. The barometer index hit a high of 20,394.89 at, the onset of the trading session. At day's high, Sensex rose 107.90 points. Sensex hit a low of 20,220.46 in mid-afternoon trade. At day's low, Sensex had lost 66.53 points.

Sensex had struck an all-time high of 20,498.11 on 13 December 2007.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty gained 5.75 points or 0.09% to 6,144.35

Most sectoral indices on BSE rose. BSE FMCG Index (up 2.38% at 2,375.07), BSE PSU index (up 1.58% to 10,633.48), BSE Metal index (up 0.21% at 20,061.49), and Bankex (up 0.81% to 11,510.31), BSE Power Index (up 2.17% at 4,647.66), BSE Auto index (up 0.87% at 5,716.49) and BSE Realty (up 2.44% to 13,037.89), outperformed the Sensex.

BSE Health Care index (down 0.16% at 4,411.54), BSE Oil and Gas index (down 0.16% at 13,280.88), BSE Consumer Durables index (down 0.86% to 6,897.19), BSE TecK index (down 1.04% to 3,973.32), BSE Capital Goods index (down 0.04% at 19,747.80), BSE IT index (down 1.28% to 4,471.48), underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth was strong on BSE with 2264 shares advancing as compared to 647 that declined. 23 remained unchanged

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 8911.47 crore as compared to Rs 8977 crore on Monday, 31 December 2007.

The NSE's futures & options turnover rose to Rs 49163.28 crore from Rs 46186.73 crore on Monday, 31 December 2007.

Nifty January 2007 futures were at 6160.80, a 16.45 premium of points compared to the spot closing of 6144.35.

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.49% to 9,935.03 while the BSE Small-Cap index gained 2.66% to 13,703.40. The BSE Mid-Cap index struck an all time high of 9,972.53 and the BSE Small-Cap index hit a record high of 13,787.50 today. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

Among the Sensex pack, 16 rose while the rest slipped

India’s largest private sector power utility company in terms of net profit, Reliance Energy surged 6.73% to Rs 2278.25. The stock hit all-time high of Rs 2289 today. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack. The company owns 50% in Reliance Power, which it plans to list.

Among power generation stocks, Tata Power surged 5.33% to Rs 1549.30 and National Thermal Power Corporation gained 2.70% to Rs 256.80.

FMCG stocks gained on fresh buying. India’s largest cigarette manufacturer in terms of sales, ITC jumped 3.80% to Rs 218.30. The stock hit all-time high of Rs 220.90 today. As per reports, ITC's subsidiary Fortune Park Hotels plans to invest around Rs 130 crore in three or four hotels in Bangalore, Coimbatore and Kolkata.

Hindustan Unilever (up 1.96% to Rs 218.10), Marico (up 3.20% to Rs 70.85), and Dabur India (up 2.10% to Rs 116.10), were the other gainers from FMCG pack.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization & oil refiner Reliance Industries declined 1.01% to Rs 2,852

Shares of Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest cellular services provider in terms of market capitalisation slipped 2.67% to Rs 968, and was the biggest loser from the Sensex pack. The stock slipped on profit booking after surging 5.84% yesterday, 31 December 2007.

IT pivotals were subdued. TCS (down 2.62% to Rs 1055), Wipro (down 2.02% to Rs 515), Satyam Computers (down 1.48% to Rs 442.50) and Infosys (down 1.10% to Rs 1748.90), were the other losers from IT pack.

Infosys Technologies, the nation's second biggest software exporter in terms of net profit, will be one of the first among India's big companies to report Q3 December 2007 earnings on 11 January 2008.

Hotel shares surged on fresh buying. EIH (up 12.44% to Rs 207.50), EIH Associated Hotels (up 9.98% to Rs 209.35), Indian Hotels Company (up 9.24% to Rs 174.30), Viceroy Hotels (up 6.83% to Rs 134.45) and Hotel Leelaventure (up 1.79% to Rs 74), surged.

Reliance group stocks dominated turnover charts on BSE, with 4 out of top 5 stocks being from Reliance group. Reliance Energy was the top traded counter on BSE with total turnover of Rs 312.18 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 208.25 crore), Mahanagar Telehone Nigam (Rs 110.80 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 111.60 crore), and Reliance Capital (Rs 111.04 crore), in that order.

Among the side counters, Venkys India (up 20% to Rs 240.30), Vadilal Enterprises (up 20% to Rs 127.20), and Atlanta (up 20% to Rs 425.55), surged

Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) surged 4.98% to Rs 123.80. On Monday, RCF signed a memorandum of understanding with GAIL India for setting up coal gasification project in Talcher, Orissa

Krypton Industries jumped 9.18% Rs 76.10 after the company said its board will consider stock split in a meeting to be held on 24 January 2008.

UCO Bank surged 19.49% to Rs 70.80 on reports it plans to merge with a smaller or a similar sized bank by March 2008 to attain size.

Ramsarup Industries gained 5.10% Rs 275 after the company said it has increased prices of steel wires in range of Rs 1000 per metric tonne to Rs 2500 per metric tonne with effect from 1 January 2008.

TVS Motor Company rose 0.28% to Rs 72.65 despite its two-wheeler sales eclining 5.4% to 97,576 units in December 2007 over December 2006.

Marksans Pharma gained 4.99% to Rs 323.15 after the company said it has signed an agreement with U.K.'s Hale Group to buy it out along with its subsidiary.

IFCI surged 3.23% to Rs 96 after Reserve Bank of India announced that foreign funds can buy equity shares and convertible debentures of IFCI through primary and secondary markets up to 74 % of the capital of the company.

Venus Remedies spurted 16.47% to Rs 565.25 after the company said it has received the European good manufacturing practices certification for its Cephalosporin and Carbapenem plants at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

Dhanus Technologies jumped 5.60% to Rs 366.85 on reports of the company reaching final round of negotiations with Boursan Holding, Turkey's diversified business conglomerate, to acquire its telecom arm, Boursan Telekom Corporation.

GV Films was the volumes topper on BSE with total volume of 2.41 crore shares followed by IFCI (2.38 crore shares), GTL Infrastructure (1.50 crore shares), Centurion Bank of Punjab (1.50 crore shares), and Hindustan Motors (1.15 crore shares), in that order.

The National Stock Exchange today launched mini derivative futures & options contracts based on S&P CNX Nifty index with a lot size of 20.

US markets ended year 2007 on a negative note as tech stocks were hit by profit-takers and falling oil prices sent energy shares lower on Friday, 31 December 2007. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 101.05 points, or 0.76%, to 13,264.82. The S&P 500 index declined 10.13 points, or 0.69%, to 1,468.36. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 22.18 points, or 0.83%, to 2,652.28.

In the calendar year 2007, the BSE Sensex surged 6,500.08 points or 47.14% to 20,286.99, from its close of 13,786.91 on 29 December 2006. The S&P CNX Nifty vaulted 2,172.20 or 54.76% in calendar 2007.

FIIs regarded as key drivers in the recent bull-run pumped Rs 71,486.50 crore in Indian equity market in the calendar year 2007.

Strategy, Economy, HDFC

Strategy, Economy, HDFC

Godrej land bank unlocking

The Godrej business group recently commissioned a London marketing agency to redesign its brand image. The aim was to dust down the dowdy Godrej of Almira cupboards to something smarter befitting New India.

Though the sprawling Godrej empire is vast (sales last year totalled an estimated Rs246.57 billion), the group seemed to lack the sparkling edge of New India as represented by financial services, mass retail, telecoms, even foreign acquisitions. Godrej only went down that path recently, and modest it was too. That has now changed with the revaluation of the group's huge and historically most passive asset — property.

With the repeal of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, long regarded as a drag on property-driven economic growth in Mumbai, Adi Godrej, chairman, is expected to gain control over nearly 3,000 acres of land in and around Mumbai. That will make him a significant player in Mumbai's real estate market.

The traditional landed elite of Mumbai — many, such as Godrej, from the Parsi community—has watched as its unproductive land assets have in recent years been lifted, first, by a low interest regime and a revolution in financial products such as mortgages, and, more recently, by the ditching of a law that most analysts believe will be transformational for such businesses. Godrej stands at the head of this queue.

The self-effacing and gentlemanly Godrej remains calm as his historic business is changed beyond the rewording of his evidently redundant branding agency. Market estimates suggest that the group is in various stages of developing 20m sq ft of property and that the Godrej property unit, growing by a fifth annually, will be the group's fastest-growing business in a couple of years.

But for all the fundamental change within his business, Godrej is simple at heart. Citing an early morning drive to his corporate office at Vikhroli, he is more likely to excuse himself from one of his wife Parmesh's glamorous parties.

Catch him on an average weekend and he'll be wind surfing, jet skiing or racing a couple of his kids and their friends around on a speed boat. Adi's ruggedness and adventurous streak have given Parmesh sleepless nights. Once when he eschewed the car and chose to sail back from Madh Island he was even given up for dead - until search parties rescued him.

His office at Vikhroli is modest, he adheres to strict protocol and his matronly Parsi and Goan secretariat add a homely fuddy-duddy air. He talks with pride of his strong mother who was a keen Gandhian, a freedom fighter and a passionate philanthropist.

His unstinting support of his wife Parmesh's legendary flamboyance speaks of a genuine liberal attitude. He is as committed in promoting his daughters' careers in the Godrej company as he is of his son's.

Short Term Trading Calls

Buy Sriniwas Shipping at Rs 208. Stop Loss at Rs 167, target at Rs 306 and Rs 495.

Buy Dish TV at Rs 105. Stop Loss at Rs 82, target of Rs 133-Rs 165-Rs 185-Rs 216.

Buy Gujarat NRE Coke around Rs 143.40. Stop Loss at Rs 129, target at Rs 190 and Rs 277.

Biggies sell

Forget year-end bonuses. India Inc’s professionals have capitalised on the market boom to make some serious money in the last quarter of 2007. With the market at record levels, several big shots encashed crores by selling part of their stock options in the last three months. While several of them pulled out a few lakhs, some big shots including Vineet Nayyar of Tech Mahindra, HDFC’s Deepak Parekh and Renu Karnad, AM Naik and VK Magapu of L&T and PB Kashyap of Ambuja Cement have grossed crores in the run-up to the new year.

The biggest gainer was Tech Mahindra MD Vineet Nayyar, who encashed Rs 23 crore last week. The head of the outsourcing firm which went public in 2006 is still sitting on a neat pile. Given the outstanding shares in his name, Mr Nayyar currently owns Tech Mahindra shares worth a little over Rs 140 crore, which would place him among the best compensated chief executives in the country.

Among other well-known names, HDFC's Deepak Parekh and Renu Karnad sold shares worth Rs 9.3 crore each in mid-December. They had earlier sold shares worth about Rs 5 crore each in late September. And that’s not all. The current value of the shares that Ms Karnad holds adds up to Rs 45.45 crore or more than $11 million, while that of Mr Parekh stands at Rs 60 crore or about $15 million.

Some of the other board members of HDFC also encashed a part of their holdings. For instance, SB Patel has encashed about Rs 1.38 crore at the fag end of October, while NM Munjee, an independent director in HDFC and currently chairman of Development Credit Bank, encashed about Rs 92 lakh through multiple transactions over the last eight weeks.

It's not just the service sector companies whose top execs have hit bull’s eye. Take engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which has been facing succession issues. The company, which had to extend the retirement age of its top management, including its chairman and managing director, has created quite a few millionaires.

L&T chairman and managing director AM Naik sold shares worth Rs 8.6 crore between end of October and early November. Among others, whole-time director VK Magapu encashed Rs 8.5 crore while RN Mukhija and KV Ramaswami pulled out approximately Rs 87 lakh and Rs 84 lakh respectively.

The top shots of L&T are still sitting on big money, given the value of their unsold shares. For instance, Mr Naik’s existing L&T shares are worth Rs 420.4 crore or a whopping $105 million, while whole-time director RN Mukhija’s shares are worth Rs 168.55 crore.

Ambuja Cements also proved to be a gold mine for its top executives. For instance, whole-time director PB Kulkarni encashed close to Rs 1.46 crore through multiple transactions since mid November. Among others Ambuja Cements MD AL Kapur sold shares worth Rs 65 lakh and BL Taparia, another whole-time director, encashed Ambuja Cements shares worth about Rs 90 lakh, as per recent disclosures to the stock exchange.

Among other companies, ITC directors SSH Rehman and Anup Singh sold shares worth Rs 1.68 crore and 1.15 crore respectively over the last two months alone. They had been regularly selling their shares for the last few months.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel’s company secretary Vijay Sampath pulled out Rs 46 lakh about five weeks back while Matrix Labs COO S Srinivasan encashed shares worth Rs 41 lakh.

The party is not limited to execs at India-listed companies. The top management of Nasdaq-listed BPO ExlService Holdings, too, made hay while the stock traded at levels of $22-25 for the last few months.

While president & COO Rohit Kapoor has sold a portion of his shares to pocket $1.26 million or about Rs 5.04 crore in just two transactions in December, the firm’s HR head Deepak Dhawan sold his remaining 40,000 shares to take home $1 million or about Rs 4 crore. Vice-chairman & CEO Vikram Talwar too has sold some of his stock to garner about $344,873 or Rs 1.38 crore in three tranches in November and December this year.

Via ET

Tata Chemicals

Tata Chemicals
Cluster: Ugly Duckling
Recommendation: Buy
Price target: Rs535
Current market price: Rs411

Riding on uptrend in soda ash cycle

Key points

• Soda ash prices up by 60%: Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL), the third largest producer of soda ash in the world, is set to benefit from the upturn in the soda ash cycle. A worldwide shortage of soda ash has pushed its prices up by 60% to $260-300 per tonne in the last six months. Since the supply of soda ash is expected to remain tight, its prices would stay firm going forward.
• Soda ash capacity addition to lead to volume growth: TCL has recently added 365,000tpa of capacity at its Kenyan (Magadi) plant, which is the lowest cost producer of soda ash in the world. It is also planning to raise its Magadi capacity by another 365,000tpa to 1.1mmtpa by FY2011. It has also undertaken the debottlenecking of its Mithapur plant to raise the latter's capacity from 0.9mmtpa to 1.2mmtpa by FY2011.
• Windfall profits awaiting de-bottlenecking of urea capacity: After the de-bottlenecking of the urea capacity to 1.2mmtpa by September 2008, the normative capacity utilisation would reach 145%. This would generate windfall profits for the company till capacity re-rating takes place in FY2011.
• IMACID JV to benefit from higher prices of phosphoric acid: Higher phosphoric acid prices due to a shortage coupled with a better pricing policy would further improve the profit margins for the IMACID joint venture.
• Investment portfolio worth Rs187 per share: TCL's investment portfolio of Rs775 crore (book value) is worth Rs4,600 crore, which works out to Rs187 per share.
• Valuation: At the current market price of Rs411, the stock is trading at 13.5x its FY2009E diluted earnings and an EV/EBIDTA of 6.6x. We value TCL's core business at 14.4x its FY2009E diluted earnings and investments at Rs94.8 per share after discounting 50% of their fair value. We recommend Buy on the stock with a price target of Rs535.

Natco Pharma

Any updates on Natco Pharma ? Especially readers from Hyderabad

What land bank do they have there ?

Trading Call

Buy Agro Tech Foods with a Stop Loss of Rs 217 for short-term target of Rs 325.

Ankur Drugs

Ankur Drugs

Pre Market Watch

The Indian market is likely to have a positive opening due to more active participation of the FII. Yesterday, the market closed on a positive territory on the last trading day of the year 2007. The market opened with handsome gains on the back of favoring cues from the global markets. But all of a sudden it lost the momentum to pare most of its initial gains and gathered the momentum after the mid session as the buying intensified across the counters. Both the Mid Caps and Small Caps indices once again outperformed the benchmark indices as they closed with handsome The BSE Sensex closed higher by 80.04 points at 20,286.99 and NSE Nifty grew by 58.9 points to close at 6,138.60. We expect that market may remain volatile during the trading session.

On Monday the US market closed in red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 101.05 points at 13,264.82. S&P 500 index fell by 10.13 points to close at 1,468.36 and NASDAQ dropped by 22.18 points to close at 2,652.28.

India ADRs ended in negative territory. In technology sector, Patni computers fell by (2.52%) along with Wipro by (2.24%), Satyam by (1.73%) and Infosys by (0.42%). In banking sector, HDFC bank dropped by (0.90%). VSNL and MTNL increased by (3.79%) and (0.19%) respectively.

All the Asian markets except BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty are remain closed today.

On Monday, the FIIs stood as net buyer both in equity and debt. The gross equity purchased was Rs3, 255.20 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs241.70 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs2, 114.30 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs0.00 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was Rs1, 140.90 Crore and net debt was Rs241.70Crore.

Today, Nifty has support at 6,082 and resistance at 6,213 and BSE Sensex has support at 20,034 and resistance at 20,592.

Daily Call - Jan 1 2008

Daily Call - Jan 1 2008

Market may head higher

The market is expected to head higher following the return of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) from their year end holidays. FIIs, regarded as key drivers in the recent bull-run pumped Rs 72000 crore in Indian equity market. They are expected to allocate higher funds for India from their annual portfolio following expectations of strong December 2007 quarterly earnings and positive expectations from Union budget.

All Asian markets except, BSE Sensex, will remain closed today, 1 January 2008. US markets ended year 2007 on a negative note as tech stocks were hit by profit-takers and falling oil prices sent energy shares lower on Friday, 31 December 2007. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 101.05 points, or 0.76%, to 13,264.82. The S&P 500 index declined 10.13 points, or 0.69%, to 1,468.36. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 22.18 points, or 0.83%, to 2,652.28.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose 80.04 points or 0.40% to 20,286.99, on Monday 31 December 2007. The broader CNX S&P Nifty rose 58.90 points or 0.97% to 6,138.60 on that day. Sensex struck an all time high of 20,498.11, while Nifty hit a record high of 6,185.40 on 13 December 2007.

In the calendar year 2007, the BSE Sensex surged 6,500.08 points or 47.14% to 20,286.99, from its close of 13,786.91 on 29 December 2006. It was the fourth best performer in terms of world market. The S&P CNX Nifty vaulted 2,172.20 or 54.76% in calendar 2007.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth a net Rs 516.06 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 442.99 crore on Monday, 31 December 2007.

FIIs were net sellers of Rs 1,119 crore in the futures & options (F&O) market on Monday, 31 December 2007. FIIs were net sellers of Rs 867 crore in stock futures and Rs 340 crore in index futures, but net buyers of Rs 88 crore in index options.

Gains may continue

The strong buying by FIIs in equities and the renewed buying interest in heavyweights and sectoral stocks may keep the bias positive for the day. Among the key indices, the Nifty can see an up- move till 6,200 levels and has a key support at 5,850 levels in the near-term. The Sensex has a likely support at 19,500 and may face resistance at 21,000.

US indices stumble on the last trading day of year on worries about housing and credit markets, with the Dow Jones closed at 13265, down 101 points, while the Nasdaq slipped 2 points to close at 2652.

The Indian ADRs trading on the US bourses had a mixed outing on Monday. MTNL led the pack with gains of 3.79% while,VSNL and Tata Motors gained marginally. However, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddy's Lab, Infosys, Satyam, Patni Computers and Rediff slipped over 1-2% each.

Crude oil prices in the international market moved marginally down, with the Nymex light crude oil for February delivery slipping by two cent to close at $95.98 per barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for February series fell $4.70 to settle at $838 a troy ounce.