Pre Session Commentary - Aug 11 2008

The Indian Market is expected to have positive opening as the US markets closed with heavy gains and Asian market are trading firm and a sharp fall in crude oil prices. The Indian markets on Friday took a turn in the final hours of the trading session and closed with marginal gains. After a negative start to the session backed by weak cues from the US markets, domestic market recovered some ground. However, the market did not sustain the same momentum and turned choppy as investors'' worries over rising inflation rate deepened. Inflation stood at 12.01% for the week ended 26th July 2008, up from 11.98% for the previous. Due to the buying interest during the final trading hours market moved up to close in positive territory. NSE Nifty ended above 4,500 mark and BSE Sensex above 15,100 level. Market traded weak as selling pressure was seen in rate sensitive stocks like Realty, and IT. From the sectoral front, Metal, Consumer Goods and Bank stocks were able to gather the buying momentum. However, IT and Reality stocks remained out of favor as most of the selling was seen from these baskets. The BSE Sensex closed higher by 50.57 points at 15,167.82 and NSE Nifty ended marginally up by 5.65 points at 4,529.50 The BSE Mid Caps closed with gains of 5.37 points at 5,886.97 and Small Cap ended up by 14.75 points 7,181.74. We expect that market may gain further ground during the trading session.

SEBI’s planning to introduce know your customers norms for FIIs and its meeting on 13th August 2008 for the same. These norms are related to issuance of P-notes that was earlier revised on October 2007.

On Friday the US market closed with heavy gains after oil prices tumbled more than $4 a barrel. Oil tumbled $4.82, to $115.20 a barrel, despite concerns over potential supply interruptions from a sabotaged pipeline in Turkey and military conflict between Russia and Georgia.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed higher by 302.89 points at 11,734.32 along with NASDAQ closed up by 58.37 points at 2,414.10 and S&P 500 index closed at 1,296.32 up by 30.25 points.

Indian ADRs ended in green. In technology sector, Infosys ended higher by (1.54%) along with Satyam by (1.13%), Patni Computers by (0.81%) followed by Wipro by (0.09%). In banking sector, ICICI bank and HDFC bank gained (7.99%) and (5.49%) respectively. In telecommunication sector, MTNL ended up by (0.97%) while Tata Communication lost (1.10%). Sterlite industries increased by (2.33%).

Today the major stock markets in Asia are trading firm on stronger Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei is trading up by 225.96 points at 13,394.37 along with Hang Seng trading higher by 209.63 points at 22,094.84, Taiwan Weighted trading at 7,300.39 up by 91.35 points, Seoul Composite trading higher by 20.49 points at 1,589.21 and Strait Times index is trading up by 5 points at 2,839.71.

The FIIs on Friday stood as net seller both in equity and debt. The gross equity purchased was Rs2,379.50 Crore and the gross debt purchased was Rs98.60 Crore while the gross equity sold stood at Rs2,398.50 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs174.50 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity reported was (Rs19.00) Crore and net debt was (Rs75.90) Crore.

Indian Rupee eased its initial losses to close unchanged at 42.06/07, a shade stronger than Thursday''s close of 42.07/08. It recovered 0.5% from intraday low of 42.29 and for the week, it is up 0.66%.

Today, Nifty has support at 4,626 and resistance at 4,718 and BSE Sensex has support at 14898 and resistance at 15,666.