Date: Aug-16-2010 08:42 Today the benchmark Indices are likely to open subdued as Asian stocks slides, with the region’s benchmark index sliding to a 3-week low, while the yen and dollar strengthened against most of their major counterparts as concerns about global growth curbed demand for higher-yielding assets. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.8% to 116.96, with five shares declining for each that gained. Further, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average shrunk by 0.94% or 86.53 points to 9,166.93 as investors are shying away from stocks and other risk assets following the government''s release before the bell of preliminary real GPD data for the quarter through June that fell far short of market predictions. Investor sentiment is also being dampened by the yen''s slight appreciation against the dollar and the euro. The broader Topix index deteriorated 1.1% to 822.29, with almost four times as many stocks declining as advancing. Moving forward, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained by 0.62% to 2,622.77 while Hang Seng Index declined by 0.43% or 91.55 points to 20,980.02. China’s stocks rebounded as alternative energy and health-care companies rallied on the prospect for increased investment and gold producers jumped as investors bought the shares as a hedge against inflation. Separately, Straits Times and Seoul Composite are trading down by 0.59% and 0.96% respectively. In the domestic arena, the markets are likely to follow the rout of global counter part and trade range bound with negative bias. Realty, IT and Metals stocks will be in focus in today trade. On Friday, Buying interest across the pivotal led the domestic bourses to close the day’s trade with positive note. The up move was led by Realty, CD and Bankex space. Throughout the day, optimistic cues from the global markets kept the domestic markets to float above the base line. The Indian markets belled the session with firm note tracking favourable cues. At the onset of the trade, today the domestic equity indices continued to trade in green, holding on to its early gains. However, at the mid-afternoon session the domestic bourses fell from the day’s high at 18,260.39 on BSE and 5,476.50 on NSE after European shares slide at the late hours. Besides, the U.S markets closed lower on overnight trade as disappointing economic data withdraw the positive environment. Back home, the markets continued to move in green and closed the session with decent gains. The overall market breadth was positive, as 12 out of the 13 indices ended in green. Among the sectoral indices Realty, CD, Bankex, FMCG and Oil&Gas stocks were the main gainers. The BSE Sensex closed above 18,165 mark and NSE Nifty ended above 5,450 level. The BSE Sensex closed higher by 93.13 points or (0.52%) at 18,167.03 while NSE Nifty ended up by 35.65 points or (0.66%) at 5,452.10. BSE Midcap closed with a profit of 74.13 points or (0.98%) at 7,642.04 while BSE Smallcap closed with a gain of 64.86 points or (0.67%) at 9,710.28. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 18,260.39 and intraday low of 18,050.42. On Friday, US market closed negative for the forth consecutive session as participants took their initial trading cues from overseas participants. The Eurozone GDP sent Europe’s major bourses to losses of about 1%. Selling efforts against the DAX, FTSE, and CAC eased in the afternoon, but the initial response indicated that while data of past months may be solid there remains a strong concern about the future. Moving ahead, Consumer prices for July increased 0.3%, which is a slightly stronger increase than the 0.2% rise that had been widely expected. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices in July were up just 0.1%, as expected. The Commerce Department said that retail sales rose 0.4% in July. It was considered an improvement after two months of sales declines. But the number was just below economists'' forecast of a gain of 0.5%. While the report showed strength in auto sales due to buyers'' incentives, it also showed that consumers are shying away from other purchases. The Fed''s policy meeting on Tuesday also took a toll on stocks. The central bank noted that the recovery was slowing, and said it would start buying government debt in hopes of lowering interest rates and stimulating lending. A disappointing outlook from JC Penney (JCP 19.82, -0.98) and an underwhelming response to the latest from Nordstrom (JWN 31.05, -2.39) dragged the group down to a 1.4% loss. However, investors believed the Fed''s moves will have little impact on the economy. Stocks spent most of the session chopping along in listless, lackluster fashion before trending lower into the close. The weak finish marked an appropriate conclusion the poor trade of the past five days. However, the commodity was able to trim some of its loss and settle at $75.40 per barrel, down 0.4% for the day. In the major indices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed with a loss of 16.80 points or 0.16% at 10,303.15 while NASDAQ index finished lower by 16.79 points or 0.77% to 2,173.48. The S&P 500 (SPX) closed down by 4.36 points or 0.40% to 1,079.25. Indian ADRs ended mixed on Friday. In the IT space, Wipro was down 0.23%, Patni Computers was up 10.42% while Infosys was down 0.39% and Satyam Computers remained unchanged. In the banking space, HDFC Bank was up 0.16% while ICICI Bank was up 1.15%. In the telecom space, MTNL was down 2.81%.In other sectors, Rediff was up 0.99% while Tata Motors was down 1.33%. The FIIs on Friday stood as net buyer in equity and while net seller in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 3,375.8 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 155.7 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 2,926.4 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 762.7 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 449.4 Crore and Rs (607.0) Crore respectively. Top traded volumes on NSE Nifty – Unitech with total traded volume of 28932041, followed by Sterlite Industries with 15464184, Suzlon Energy with 13960752, Tata Steel with 7841941 and Reliance with 6974575. On BSE, total number of shares traded was 46.92 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs 6,112.58 Crore. On NSE, total number of shares traded were 76.55 Crore and total turnover was Rs 16,596.87 Crore. On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 487234 with a total turnover of Rs 12,457.66 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 736892 with a total turnover of Rs 22,431.69 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1969398 with a total turnover of Rs 53,595.53 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 196825 and notional turnover was Rs 6,376.14 Crore. Today, Nifty would have a support at 5,402 and resistance at 5,482 and BSE Sensex has support at 18,011 and resistance at 18,262.