Pre Session Commentary - Aug 17 2009

Today domestic markets are likely to open negative as majority of Asian markets are trading with heavy losses. Nikkei has conceded more than 2% loss on the back of concerns of weak consumer sentiment in the US. However Japan’s economy grew by 0.9% in April-June quarter marking its fist expansion in the last five quarters. The sentiments across Asia are weak and therefore in the domestic market one could witness an early selling pressure erupting across broader level. During the day the domestic markets are likely to trade negative.

On Friday, domestic markets closed with staggering gains. After previous session’s strong rally, the domestic market closed the today’s instable session in red terrain on profit booking. Depressing US index futures weighed on the sentiments. Benchmark indices were under pressure also on concerns regarding poor monsoon. However, market tried to recover during mid session on the positive Asian markets and firm European markets, though were unable to continue the respite. The BSE Sensex ended below 15,450 level and NSE Nifty closed below 4,500 mark.

The BSE Sensex closed lower by 106.86 points at 15,411.63 and NSE Nifty ended down by 24.95 points at 4,580.05. BSE Small Caps closed with gains of 25.51 points at 6,412.56 whereas BSE Mid Caps ended with losses of 50.8 points at 5,603.81. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,535.47 and intraday low of 15,367.61.

On Friday, US stock markets closed lower. There was broad based selling pressure on the back of some latest dose of data. July CPI and core CPI were released ahead of the opening bell, which showed a monthly growth of 0.1%. The July CPI data was inline with expectations and therefore hardly affected the market sentiments. The Industrial production data for July recorded a stronger than expected growth of 0.5%. Material stocks were the laggards of the day with a loss of 2.7% followed by Retailers that shed 1.7%. Financial stocks provided a lot of support to the markets as they pared their early losses of 2% to close with modest loss of 0.5% only. US light crude oil futures for September delivery closed at $67.29 per barrel lower by 4.6% on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed lower by 76.79 points at 9,321.40, NASDAQ index declined by 23.83 points to 1,985.52 and the S&P 500 (SPX) closed lower by 8.64 points at 1004.09.

Today major stock markets in Asia are trading negative. Japan''s Nikkei is trading down by 246.62 points at 10,521.02 followed by Hang Seng which is trading lower by 596.60 points at 20,471.77 and Taiwan Weighted is trading also trading lower by 84.02 points at 7,034.27.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Friday. In the IT pack, Infosys was down 2.19%, Satyam was down 1.96%, Wipro was down 1.53%, while Patni was up 0.93%. In the Telecom space, MTNL was down 3.65% but Tata Comm was up 1.88%. In the banking lot, ICICI Bank was down 2.93%, while HDC Bank was up 0.59%. In the other sectors, Dr Reddys was down 0.72%, Tata Motors was down 3.51% and Sterlite was down 1.38%.


On Friday, the partially convertible rupee ended at 48.24/25 per dollar, 0.3% weaker than previous close at 48.11/12. It rupee weakened duet to lackluster local stocks markets and also slowing economic growth after weak monsoon rains dented the outlook for farm output.

On BSE, total number of shares traded were 44.38 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 5,649.97 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 90.76 Crore and total turnover was Rs 16,421.25 Crore.

Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total volume traded 40787003 shares, followed by Suzlon Energy with 38859379, DLF with 14406199, Hindalco with 12990865 and Tata Steel with 11898887 shares.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 712281 with a total turnover of Rs 15,422.16 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 548389 with a total turnover of Rs 17,775.52 crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1243373 with a total turnover of Rs 28,858.95 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 55779 and notional turnover was Rs 1,835.09 Crore.

Today, Nifty would have a support at 4,486 and resistance at 4,532 and BSE Sensex has support at 15,065 and resistance at 15,236.