Pre-Market report on 04.04.2008

[K.Karthik Raja]

Markets looking dull; Will there be a storm after the lull?

US Markets ended another session with marginal gains after
Mr.Bernanke
defended the central bank's decision to aid JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s buy
of
Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch CEO re-assuring investors that the
investment
bank has sufficient cash and will not need to raise more. Dow Jones
ended the
day at 12,626.03 up 20 points and Nasdaq closed up 1.9 points at
2,363.30.

Japanese markets continued their fierce recovery after Nikkei gained
around
200 points yesterday closing at 13,399 points.

Indian Markets continued to reel under the hang over of domestic
concerns.
The index of six core infrastructure industries grew 8.7 per cent in
February
2008 against 7.6 per cent in the same month last year. This gives
relief to
investors after IIP data of January showed a drastic slow down. IT
Sector as
expected is leading the fight in holding the indices from going down.
Almost
all the IT biggies gained yesterday on Dalal street. Soon we expect
the
midcap IT stocks to catch the pre-result fever. Capital goods sector
is
severely hit on lower than expected results from BHEL. But the
chairman of
BHEL is bullish about the outlook on rising orders for new power
plants that
India is building to bridge a shortfall in power generation.

Indiabulls Securities continued the dismal run on the bourses with 9
percent
fall yesterday to close at Rs.89.05. Brokerage stocks are out of
favour and
it is absolutely wrong timing for the stock to begin trading. Idea
Cellular
lost 4.9 percent to close at Rs.98.60 as Monopolies and Restrictive
Practices
(MRTP) ordered an enquiry on the company along with Airtel and
Vodafone to
check whether all the companies formed a cartel to distort
competition.

Rumour mill suggest that Tata Teleservices is likely to sell stake in
the
tower unit to Boston based American Tower Company. SEBI in an
interesting
move has asked the exchanges to provide for direct market access (DMA)
for
institutional investors. This enabled the FII's to utilize the
arbitrage
opportunities available in cash as well as Futures market.

Sensex and Nifty are likely to trade in the positive and a lower
inflation
number than last week might give the much needed boost to the market
but it
might take some more time for the liquidity to return to the markets.
We
expect the wall street to confirm the start of Bull market once Dow
Jones
cross 12,750 levels but the euphoria witnessed earlier is unlikely to
be seen
soon.

Market Close Box
BSE Sensex 15832.55 82.149
NSE Nifty 4771.60 17.40
USD Rs.39.95
Oil Nymex $103.8

K.Karthik Raja
Research Analyst