Pre-Market report on 04.03.2008

[Sukumar]

After the Bear storm Bulls stay calm
====================================================
It is a silent day in the global markets with the Wall Street closing
near
the previous levels only after Dow Jones swinging 100 points. On the
other side NASDAQ is approaching its 16 month closing lows slowly but
surely.

Earlier the manufacturing Index pointed towards contraction in the
sector after recording its lowest reading in five years. After hours
Intel reduced the gross margin forecast citing raw material prices.
Japan opened subdued to the global cues and the currency continued its
strength against the dollar. At the time of writing Nikkei is trading
down 90 points. Indian Finance Minister remarked that "Indian Economy
is not as decoupled as we think". Mr. FM is correct and India cannot
decouple with the vote bank budgets. Indian Economy is at a critical
juncture and we expected the government to boost more infrastructure
spending, come up with power sector reforms, tackle the strong rupee
and many more. But none of the concerns are addressed as the minister
tried to play safe for the forthcoming elections.

Pharma sector is in the pink of health yesterday as investors/funds
rushed to take comfort in the defensive sector. Auto stocks continued
to make merry after the budget sops. Gold is running and so is Crude
and Silver. Copper hits a 22 month high. There is a huge rush for
precious metals across the globe. Commodity analysts predict the
continuation of the secular bull run in the precious metals space.

Retail Investors are reluctant to participate in the markets and
rumours are flying at a rapid pace that BSE Sensex will kiss 12,000
levels. Looking at the trading volumes one cannot deny those rumours
but when the reversal happens it doesn't given an indication too. This
is a dangerous market to short too. Take a break. Pick your favourite
destination and enjoy your holiday as the current markets will drive
you nuts.

The street is likely to be subdued today with a 200 point range and
the
brokerage stocks hammering likely to continue further. As Merrill
Lynch said yesterday that the resilience the US market despite of the
continuous negative news flow is really surprising and at the same
time the Emerging Markets are succumbing to the same news flow. As
mentioned number of times no one can predict the bottoms. Long term
investors should continue the bargain
hunting.

Market Close Box :

BSE Sensex 16677.88 -900.84
NSE Nifty 4953.00 -270.50
USD Rs.40.26
Oil Nymex $102.4