Bulls on the front foot!

Morning means one more innings given to play and win what you missed yesterday.

Sehwag's fastest century by an Indian may inspire many a bull to launch an offensive. We missed the global rally, as the world's major stock markets rebounded from recent reversals while we celebrated Id and Holi and of course India's victory in New Zealand. Majority of the gains were driven by Citigroup's remarks that it was profitable in the first two months of 2009. As a result, we may see some bounce early on in today's session.

However, anxiety ahead of IIP and Inflation data, coupled with mixed global cues could spoil the party for bulls later. IIP is expected to be flat to marginally negative. A bigger fall in IIP may heighten worries over the health of an already sluggish economy.

Meanwhile, inflation is expected to fall sharply from 3.03% to around 2.3%. While that may be good news on one hand, it also points to a worsening macro-economic situation. Guard your wicket as coming on the front foot could often get you stumped.

A short-term spurt shouldn't lead one to believe that we are out of the woods. We remain in a bear market, and such rallies are only to be expected. A sustained recovery will not take place in the absence of stability in western financial system.

FIIs were net sellers in the cash segment on Monday at Rs849.4mn, while the local institutions pumped in close to Rs3bn. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net buyers at Rs4.42bn. On Friday, FIIs were net sellers of just Rs16mn. Mutual Funds were net buyers of Rs1.29bn on the same day.

US stocks closed mixed on Wednesday, with the blue chip indices nearly unchanged while the technology shares extended Tuesday's big rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 4 points, or less than 0.1%, to 6,930.40. The S&P 500 index added 2 points, or 0.2%, to 721.36. The Nasdaq Composite index rose 13 points, or 1%, to 1,371.64. It has now gained 8% in two sessions.

Stocks rallied in early trades and gyrated through the afternoon before taking another shot at a rally towards the close.

The US market had rallied on Tuesday, with all three major benchmarks posting their biggest gains of the year. Citigroup eased some concerns about its future after saying that it was profitable in the first two months of the year, spurring optimism that banks are recovering from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Financial stocks also gained after regulators said they may reinstate the "uptick rule" that stops short sellers from driving a stock lower.

The Dow and S&P 500 ended Monday's session at 12-year lows and the Nasdaq at 6-year lows, following over two months of selling on nagging worries about the financial mess and its fallout on the global economy.

As of Wednesday, the Dow is down 21% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is down 20% and the Nasdaq has lost 14%.

Financial stocks were mostly higher on Wednesday, but off the day's high, as investors braced for the congressional hearing on Thursday on the mark-to-market accounting.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that he sees modest signs of an economic recovery and that he supports a plan to create a US risk regulator. The bank's shares gained 4.6%. Citi, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs all advanced.

Among the technology stocks, Apple, Dell, eBay and Google led the rally. Dow component Hewlett-Packard (HP) surged 5.8% on a UBS upgrade.

The February budget deficit in the US increased by US$192.8bn in February, short of forecasts for a rise of US$205bn. The deficit for the first five months of fiscal 2009 rose to a record US$764.5bn, over US$300bn more than the entire deficit for fiscal 2008, which was a record.

Four US states' unemployment rate jumped more than 10% in January. The states are Michigan, South Carolina, Rhode Island and California. In January, 49 states and the District of Columbia saw higher month-over-month jobless rates. Only Louisiana bucked the trend.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking ahead of the G-20 financial summit next month, urged global leaders to increase their efforts to help the world economy amid a deepening recession.

Treasury prices inched lower, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.02% from 3% on Tuesday.

Lending rates were unchanged. The 3-month Libor rate held steady at 1.33%, while the overnight Libor rate held at 0.33%. Libor is a bank-to-bank lending rate.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and the yen.

US light crude oil for April delivery settled down US$3.38 to US$42.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices dropped after the government's report showed crude supplies rose last week, while Chinese consumption dropped.

COMEX gold for April delivery rose US$14.80 to settle at US$910.70 an ounce.

Thursday brings reports on February retail sales, weekly jobless claims, January business inventories and the Congressional hearing on mark-to-market accounting.

After the market closed, Freddie Mac said that it will tap an additional $30.8bn in federal aid after loan holdings and other assets deteriorated.

European stocks inched higher, paced by gains in banks such as Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index added 0.2% to 166.24, off earlier highs, after posting the best one-day percentage rise in four months on Tuesday.

Germany's DAX 30 index rose 0.7% to 3,914.10 and the French CAC-40 index added 04% to 2,674.20.

After staging a smart come back on Friday, it was another day of losses for the Indian equity markets. Markets came under renewed selling pressure as traders and investors preferred to stay light ahead of holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 165 points to close at 8,160 and the NSE Nifty slipped 47 at 2,573.

Among the 30-components of Sensex, 27 stocks ended in negative terrain and only 3 stocks ended in the green. ITC, Reliance Industries, SBI, Infosys, L&T and Bharti were among the major laggards. Bucking the negative trend were, HDFC, Maruti and M&M.

Shares of Lupin advanced by 1.1% to Rs593 after the company announced a strategic tie-up with top academic echelons - Manipal University (Karnataka), Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (Pilani) and Pune University - in a move to allow employees of Lupin's R&D wing, Lupin Research Park, to pursue their industry specific research while concurrently working with Lupin. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs601 and a low of Rs574 and recorded volumes of over 35,000 shares on BSE.

Shares of Jindal Steel & Power gained by half a percent to Rs1004 after reports stated that Bolivia plans to take 600 acres of private land that contains part of the El Mutun iron ore deposit and deliver it to the company. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs1029 and a low of Rs990 and recorded volumes of over 0.2mn shares on BSE.

Shares of United Spirits gained by 3% to Rs596 following reports that four global spirits makers including Diageo have shown interest in acquiring stake in the company. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs607 and a low of Rs574 and recorded volumes of over 1.2mn shares on BSE.

Shares of SpiceJet surged to higher altitude after reports stated that the low-cost airliner is in talks with the GoAir for either a merger or to acquire a controlling stake in the company.

CEO Sanjay Aggarwal stated that, SpiceJet wanted to set up a regional airline to connect smaller cities in the country. Apart from Delhi and Mumbai, GoAir currently flies to smaller towns like Goa, Jammu, Srinagar, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Kochi.

The stock ended at Rs13.3 rising by over 10% hitting an intra-day high of Rs14.6 and a low of Rs12.7 and recorded volumes of over 1.7mn shares on BSE.

Shares of Satyam Computer rallied by over 15% to Rs48.7 after the company announced that it invited bidders interested in buying a majority stake. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs50 and a low of Rs34 and recorded volumes of over 3.5mn shares on BSE.

Shares of BHEL slipped by 1% to Rs1300. The company announced that it won a major contract for the manufacture and supply of generator transformers against stiff competition from European MNCs and Indian companies.

Valued at Rs810mn, the order has been placed by Powergen Infrastructure for the upcoming 1,980 MW (3x660 MW) Tirora Thermal Power Project of Adani Power Maharashtra Ltd. (APML). The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs1307 and a low of Rs1278 and recorded volumes of over 0.2mn shares on BSE.

Shares of Tata Motors slipped by 2% to Rs136 after the company announced that its promoters pledged total 13.42% stake. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs141 and a low of Rs135 and recorded volumes of over 0.5mn shares on BSE.

With markets to remain shut on Tuesday and Wednesday, all eyes would be on the inflation and IIP data to be released on Thursday when markets resume trading.