The market opened firm tracking strong Asian markets but pared gains later to trade in red for a brief period. It spurted again from lower level. Healthcare, IT and FMCG stocks rose. Wipro and Tata Cionsultancy Services were major gainers from the Sensex pack. The market breadth was negative. Asian markets which opened before Indian markets were in green.

At 10:21 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 165.35 points or 1.12% at 15,514.51. At the days high of 15,517,06, the Sensex rose 173.94 points in early trade. At the days low of 15,321.56 Sensex lost 21.56 points in early trade.

The broader based S&P; CNX Nifty was up 36.85 points or 0.79% at 4,683.85.

The market breadth was negative: on BSE 581 shares advanced as compared to 920 that declined. 37 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index down 0.35% to Rs 6,240.96 and BSE Small-Cap index down 0.4% to 7,684.21.

Indias largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 0.52% to Rs 2,334. As per reports, Reliance Industries is planning to enter into the rig manufacturing business besides investing $2.5 billion to enter into petrocoke gasification.

Indias second largest telecom services provider by sales Reliance Communications (RCom) declined 1.03% to Rs 495. It has reportedly formed a joint venture with a local firm to launch GSM mobile services in Sri Lanka by this year.

India's largest state-run oil exploration firm in terms of revenue ONGC rose 1.05% to Rs 1,016.30.ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporations (ONGC), will reportedly sign an agreement on 8 April 2008 to take a 40% stake in the San Cristobal oilfield in Venezuela. OVL will make a total investment of $355.738 million comprising signature bonus of $173.1 million for the stake, the reports added.

Indias largest IT services exporter by sales Tata Consultancy Services rose 3% to Rs 896.50. The company has signed a new multi-year contract with Chrysler LLC to provide a comprehensive portfolio of IT services.

Healthcare tocks rose. Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 1.82% to Rs 466.10), Dr. Reddys Laboratories (up 0.3% to Rs 601) and Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries (up 0.66% to Rs 1,250) edged higher.

FMCG stocks inched up. United Spirits (up 1.12% to Rs 1,604), ITC (up 1.29% to Rs 203.40) and Hindustan Unilever (up 0.77% to Rs 243.40) edged higher.

ICICI Bank (up 1.87% to Rs 778.05), Wipro (up 3.82% to Rs 431.50), Satyam Computer Services (up 2.53% to Rs 435.50), HDFC (up 2.07% to Rs 2,324.70), NTPC (up 1.19% to Rs 192), Tata Motors (up 0.93% to Rs 619.35) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 3.37% to Rs 1,579), Larsen & Toubro (down 2.28% to Rs 2,625), Tata Steel (down 2.22% to Rs 646), Ambuja Cements (down 2.94% to Rs 115.60) and Reliance Energy (down 1.83% to Rs 1,145) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Asian stocks nudged higher today, 7 April 2008, as a worse-than-expected US payrolls data on Friday, 4 April 2008, which showed a fall of 80,000 jobs in March 2008, raised expectations of further interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan were up by between 0.02% to 3.02%.

US equities held steady on Friday after the poor showing in employment and despite worries about banking sector earnings

As per provisional data, foreign funds sold shares worth a net Rs 848.57 crore on Friday, 4 April 2008. Domestic funds bought shares worth a net Rs 579.84 crore.

Foreign funds were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 517.24 crore and they net sold index options worth Rs 117.37 crore on Friday. FIIs were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 139.72 crore. They were net sellers of stock options to the tune of Rs 3.20 crore.

Sensex plunged 489.43 points or 3.09% at 15,343.12 on Friday, 4 April 2008, on fears of monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of India after the latest data showed a surge in inflation to a 3-year high of 7% in late March 2008.

The next major trigger for the market is Q4 March 2008 results of India Inc. Analysts will be closely watching what the company managements have to say about the outlook for the year ending March 2009 (FY 2009). Analysts will also scrutinize disclosures that companies may make regarding foreign exchange derivatives products that they have bought on the advice of their bankers. A steep decline in the value of the US dollar against the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc hit Indian corporates which have used these two currencies (Yen and Franc) extensively to swap their rupee denominated debt.

As regards Q4 March 2008 results, Morgan Stanley expects 23% growth in net earnings of 104 out of 108 firms in its Indian coverage universe in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007.

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies kickstarts the earnings reporting season on 15 April 2008.

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