Pre-Market Report - 20.02.2008

[K.Karthik Raja]

Crude hits century, Investors wary

Crude closed at $100 per barrel for the first time ever. Wall street
lost all the gains to end the negative zone with Dow Jones losing 11
points to close at 12,377 and Nasdaq closing at 2,306 down 15 points.
Zurich-based Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, today
announced a USD 2.85 billion in writedowns blaming on the credit
turmoil. After hours Hewlett-Packard declared street beating results
and raised the outlook.
Japanese markets are currently trading down 77 points on the weak
global cues. We beleive Japanese markets have already bottomed out
just below 13,000 levels 10 days back. We do not expect big losses in
Japanese markets in the coming days.

Govt in a surprising move today extended tax sops to exporters
covering transport and storage of goods. Taxes will be refunded back
to the exporters. Logistics companies are likely to benefit from this
move. Gateway Distriparks, Container Coporation, Patel Integrated
Logistcs are few listed players in this segment.

Government is likely to levy 10 percent export tax on Iron Ore
exporters, courtesy powerful Steel Industry lobbying. Sesa Goa is
likely to take the hit. Rupee hits a 5-month low on shortage of
dollars, in conjunction with other International currencies against
the greenback(USD). IT Stocks started looking up with midcap stocks
picking up steam. Though IT Stocks tried to come back many times in
the last 4-5 months, many a time turned out to be one day wonders.

OnMobile Global surprised the street with better than expected listing
on the bourses. Bang Overseas Ltd & Shriram EPC Ltd are listing on BSE
today. On the IPO front REC(Rural Electrification Corporation), the
govt. owned power finance corporation subscribed in the first 30 mins
of its opening.

Indian Markets are likely to witness another dull day after a
lacklustre
Monday and Tuesday, though volatility is not ruled out. Midcaps are
likely to outshine largecaps though broad based rallies cannot be
expected given the macro economic scenarion. Expectations on the
budget are likely to start building up and Textiles, Infrastructure,
Power and IT sectors are likely to benefit from the same. FDI in Cable
TV and more sops to agriculture sector are in the pipeline

Have a great trading & income day.

Market Close Box:
==================
BSE Sensex 18075.66 27.61
NSE Nifty 5280.80 3.90
USD Rs.39.87
Oil Nymex $100.0

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