STEADY MARKETS

The domestic markets have steadied in the mid morning trade, though the benchmarks are managing to hold gains but the level of 5000 for Nifty and 16600 for Sensex is acting as major resistance level and the indices are finding it difficult to cross them with comfortable margin. Though, buying has appeared in all the sectoral gauges but the metal sector has taken the lead on expectation of demand revival from the global economies. The markets sentiments were boosted with the strength in rupee which has surged for the sixth straight day boosted by sustained foreign investor interest in debt and equity. Funds buying have aided the markets upmove in the early part of the day, though, the IT and technology stocks continue to remain in somber mood, dragged down by some scrip specific movements.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16590.97, up by 139.50 points or 0.85%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16662.06 and 16573.42 respectively. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in tandem with the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.96% while the small cap index was trading up by 0.90%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 2.11%, Realty up by 2.02%, Bankex up by 1.57%, Auto up by 1.35% and Oil & Gas was up by 1.10%.

On the flip side IT down by 0.77% and TECk down by 0.67% were the only two laggards in the sectoral space.

The top gainers of the Sensex were Hindalco Inds up by 3.34%, DLF up by 3.26%, Sterlite Inds up by 3.06%, Tata Steel up by 3.04% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 2.41%.

On the other hand Tata Power down by 0.82%, ICICI Bank down by 0.75%, Gail India down by 0.44%, ITC down by 0.38% and TCS was down by 0.28% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, decline in prices of food items, such as fruit and vegetables have brought the consumer price index (CPI) down by 0.44% m-o-m in December 2011. As per the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, based on retail prices, the CPI stood at 113.9 points in December compared with 114.4 points in November. Further, numbers were released separately for the urban, rural areas and combined showed a fall of 0.78%, 0.09% and 0.44% respectively on m-o-m basis.

As depicted by the numbers, the fall was more in the rural areas than the urban. The fall was mainly on account of cheaper vegetables which saw a dip of 15.01% m-o-m to 98.5 points. The fruit index also fell by 3.78% to 122.2 points. Similarly, the index for condiments and spices fell by 1% to 123.9 points. At the all-India level, the CPI for 'food, beverages and tobacco' in December fell by 1% to 112.8 points from 114.3 points in the previous month.

In December, the CPI for 'clothing, bedding and footwear' stood at 122.2 points on an all-India basis, compared to 121.5 points in November, an increase of around 1%.  In addition, the prices in the 'fuel and light' segment rose marginally in December vis-a-vis the previous month, with the index moving up to 120.0 points from 119.6 points in November.

The index for 'Housing' in December stood at 112.2 points, up by 1.17% m-o-m basis from 110.9 points in November. This is the sixth month that housing prices were factored into the CPI data. However, the data was compiled only for urban areas. The government earlier said house rent was negligible for the rural areas, and as such, only urban areas were taken into account for the index on housing. Further, the index for 'Miscellaneous' was flat at 112.8 points on a nationwide basis in the month under review, compared to 112.7 points in the previous month.

For the whole year, Kerala has seen the sharpest rise in prices among states with inflation from January-December at 16%. Union territories like Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and small state like Manipur have done the best to tame inflation with the hike being at less than 10%. The ministry also mentioned that the annual inflation rates would be available at the time of release of indices for January, 2012. The indices for January are scheduled to be released on February 21.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,000.40, up by 44.60 points or 0.90%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,014.85 and 4,991.40 respectively. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Infra up by 4.27%, ACC up by 4.22%, Tata Steel up by 3.25%, DLF up by 3.13% and JP Associates was up by 3.03%.

On the other hand, BHEL down by 2.29%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.20%, Infosys down by 1.17%, Wipro down by 0.87% and HUL down by 0.56% were the top losers on the index.

All the Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite was up by 1.13%, Hang Seng was up by 1.11%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.69%, Nikkei 225 surged by 1.14%, Straits Times gained 0.49% and Seoul Composite was up by 0.99%.

Markets in Taiwan remained close for a public holiday.