Hitting the glass door!

We go through life pulling on doors marked Push.

Hitting glass ceilings are things of the past. Any door of opportunity just seems to swing back, knocking down bulls harder each time. Bulls may have hoped for less losses at start due to the surprising resistance on Wall Street despite another grim jobs report. However, the key indices are expected to come under renewed selling pressure sooner than later.

Asian benchmarks are mostly down this morning. European indices too ended lower on Friday amid nagging worries over the deteriorating health of the banks. Moreover, local traders and investors would prefer to stay light ahead of holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Overall, we continue to advise caution, as the key indices closing in on October's intra-day lows. The CNX Mid-Cap actually made new bear market lows last week. The Sensex and the Nifty might follow suit shortly due to worsening global environment and growing worries over the domestic outlook.

A bearish outlook on the rupee is likely to make matters worse, as FIIs may accelerate their selling binge. The overseas funds have already pulled out $2bn so far this year from Indian equities.

FIIs were net sellers in the cash segment on Friday at Rs2.75bn, while the local institutions pumped in Rs2.99bn. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net buyers at Rs5.95bn. On Thursday, FIIs were net sellers in the cash segment at Rs6.09bn. Mutual Funds were net sellers of Rs2.19bn on the same day.

US blue chip stocks ended slightly higher on Friday, led by banks and energy firms, as investors shrugged off another grim jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied more than 150 points in the final 35 minutes of trading, paced by gains in GE.

GE shares jumped 6%, halting a five-day 17% fall, as analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and Merrill Lynch said the finance unit has adequate funding. Chevron and Exxon Mobil advanced 2.9% as oil prices surged.

The Dow erased a 124-point drop that followed a morning advanced spurred by a slower rate of job cuts in February.

The Dow rose 32 points, or 0.5%, to 6,626.94. During the session, the Dow briefly touched 6469.95, the lowest intraday level since April 15, 1997. The Dow has fallen in 14 of the last 19 sessions.

The S&P 500 index finished nearly unchanged, up 0.1%, at 683.38. Earlier, the S&P fell to 666.79, its lowest point during a session since Sept. 11, 1996.

The Nasdaq Composite index lost 5 points, or 0.4%, to 1,293.85. The tech-laced index briefly touched 1268.54, breaking through its November lows, before closing above that level.

Stocks slipped through most of the session, but the losses were pretty slim. In the last hour of trade, stocks staged a recovery, with the blue chips ending with gains.

The fact that stocks didn't see a bigger selloff on the dismal jobs report could be a positive indication, according to some analysts. But, that doesn't mean that a so-called bottom is forming, they added.

Since closing at all-time highs on Oct. 9, 2007, the Dow has lost nearly 53% and the S&P 500 has lost 56%. Year-to-date, both the Dow and the S&P 500 are down nearly 25%.

During the last week, the Dow average lost 6.2%, matching its worst retreat since October, while the S&P 500's 7% drop was the steepest in 14 weeks.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.87% from 2.81% on Thursday.

Lending rates were little changed. The 3-month Libor rate rose to 1.29% from 1.28% on Thursday, while the overnight Libor rate held steady at 0.32%. Libor is a bank-to-bank lending rate.

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

US light crude oil for April delivery rose US$1.91 to settle at US$45.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for April delivery settled up US$14.90 to settle at US$942.70 an ounce.

US employers cut 651,000 jobs from their payrolls in February, roughly in line with forecasts for cuts of 650,000, the government reported. January's losses were revised higher to 655,000. December's losses were revised up to 681,000, the most in any month since 1949.

However, Wall Street had been expecting a much bigger loss in non-farm payrolls, and had already sold off leading up to the report.

The unemployment rate, generated by a separate survey, rose to 8.1% from 7.6% in January, its highest level in 25 years. Economists had forecast an unemployment rate of 7.9%.

Wells Fargo said it will slash its quarterly dividend 85% to 5 cents from 34 cents in an attempt to save US$5 billion a year. Shares gained 6%.

But other financial stocks continued to struggle after the previous session's selloff. Dow component Citigroup again struggled around the US$1 per share mark. It has lost 31% on the week on growing worries over banks' worsening financial health.

Fellow Dow stock General Motors (GM) plunged another 22%, after touching a 75-year low earlier in the session. The auto maker said that it still aims to restructure its business without recourse to bankruptcy courts.

GE managed to bounce back from 18-year lows hit earlier in the week. The stock has been sliding on worries that the company's management hasn't fully accounted for losses in the financial division, which has been plagued by the same issues as the rest of the financial sector.

Apple led the tech losers after JPMorgan Chase downgraded the stock.

Genentech surged 11% and advanced 6.2% on the week. Swiss drug maker Roche Holding boosted its takeover offer for the slice of the 56% of the biotechnology giant it doesn't already own to US$93 a share.

Rohm & Haas jumped 18% and gained 23% on the week. The specialty paint maker and Dow Chemical confirmed they are in discussions about their proposed US$15.3bn merger and the pending lawsuit related to the deal.

European shares closed in the red on Friday, with insurers and banks pacing the retreat. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index ended 1.3% lower to 159.51 bringing week-to-date losses to about 8%.

Germany's DAX 30 index fell 0.8% to 3,666.41, while the UK's FTSE 100 index closed a fraction of a percentage point higher to 3,530.73 and the French CAC-40 index slid 1.4% to 2,534.45.

Indian markets ended with gains on Friday, driving the benchmark index to its biggest gain in three weeks. The rally was led by the IT stocks followed by the telecom, oil & gas and capital goods stocks. The BSE Sensex surged 127 points to close at 8,325 and the NSE Nifty rose 43 at 2,620.

Among the 30-components of Sensex, 22 stocks ended in positive terrain and only 8 stocks ended in the red. HDFC, Infosys, Reliance Industries, ONGC, Bharti and L&T were among the major gainers. Among the major losers were, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti and Ranbaxy.

Shares of Satyam have surged by over 19% to Rs42 after the company announced that it received approval from market regulator SEBI to facilitate a global competitive bidding process which, subject to receipt of all approvals, contemplates the selection of an investor to acquire a 51% interest in the company. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs42 and a low of Rs35 and recorded volumes of over 20mn shares on BSE.

Shares of Mphasis surged by over 8% to Rs183 after ~7.5mn equity shares of the company changed hands in a single block.

It accounted for almost 3.6% of the company's equity and the transaction was at an average price of Rs170/ share on NSE. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs191 and a low of Rs167 and recorded volumes of over 0.4mn shares on BSE.

Shares of Marico gained by a percent to Rs59.2 after ~1.5mn shares of the company changed hands in single trade. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs60 and a low of Rs58 and recorded volumes of over 1.8mn shares on BSE.

Shares of Wall Street Finance rallied by over 17% to Rs55.9 after reports stated that Reliance Money, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital, is set to acquire majority stake in the company.

The ADAG group entity, which already holds 36.55% in Wall Street Finance through its subsidiary, is looking to inject more capital through a preferential allotment. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs57 and a low of Rs49.5 and recorded volumes of over 64,000 shares on BSE.

Shares of BRFL surged by over 21% to Rs104 on the back of huge volumes. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs106 and a low of Rs83 and recorded volumes of over 1.6mn shares on BSE.

Among key data to be announced next week include IIP numbers. Contraction in industrial production is expected to continue and remain in negative zone. The overall auto sales numbers for the month of February will also be announced. Some healthy growth will be seen here. Inflation is likely to dip below the 3% mark next week but markets could hardly care about this.

The way global markets swing will determine our market's movement in the three-day trading week.