TIGHT RANGE

Benchmark equity indices oscillating in a tight range are trading on a flattish note as lack of buying interest in the local equity markets have led to lull at Dalal Street, a day of ahead of RBI monetary policy review. Disappointing start to Q3 earning season with Oil & gas major- Reliance Industries (RIL) reporting a 14 percent fall in October-December net profit on Friday, its first quarterly profit drop in more than two years as gross refining margins fell sharply, has mainly hit the market sentiment. However, gains in ICICI Bank, Infosys and Tata Power have counterbalanced the act to some extent. On the global front, US stocks ended mixed on Friday as investors were watchful of the Greek debt talk results. Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets remained closed on Monday in observance of a public holiday.

Back home, the market focus purely will be on guidance from company managements on outlook for the remaining part of the year and the next year as analysts expect weak Q3 numbers due to a slowing economy. Meanwhile, on the BSE Sectoral front, stocks from Oil & Gas, Metal and Capital Goods counters are the one's which are languishing at the bottom.

Thus in trade so far, the 30-share BSE index, which had gained over 287 points in the previous two sessions, was trading in red at 16,736.79. In a similar fashion, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index too losing traction was trading near to its neutral line. However, the gains at the broader space remained intact. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1378:739, while 99 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,736.79, down by 2.22 points or 0.01%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16,766.93 and 16,659.32 respectively.   There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declining one's on the index.

The broader indices sustained their positive momentum; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading up by 0.73% and 0.72% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 1.19%, CD up by 0.95%, TECk up by 0.85%, Power up by 0.75% and IT up by 0.70%. While, Oil and Gas down by 1.80%, Metal down by 1.26%, Capital Goods (CG) down by 0.97% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.25%, Tata Power up by 2.14%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.67%, Cipla up by 1.64% and Tata Motors up by 1.37%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.06%, RIL was down by 3.01%, Sterlite Industries was down by 2.99%, L&T down by 2.37% and Hindalco Industries 2.26% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, even as India's economy is expected to expand at a weaker pace of 6.8% in calendar year (CY) 2012, against prior estimates of 8%, though the growth rate for Asia's third largest economy in CY 2013 is forecasted to pick up momentum steadily and clock growth rates of around 9.5%, according to Ernst & Young (E&Y), a global audit and consulting firm. In its previous Rapid-Growth Markets Forecast (RGMF) released in October 2011, the global audit and consulting firm had projected India's economic growth at 8% for CY 2012.

The recent RGMF advocates that despite the moderation, India's medium to long term growth outlook remains in place for a swift resurgence as improvement in both domestic and external demand will lead to the improvement in growth. Amid expectations of an improvement in global economic environment, fading liquidity tightening woes, increase in investment and rebound in exports, the GDP growth rate is expected to accelerate strongly in CY13 at 9.5%.

Underscoring the fact that the rapid-growth markets (RGMs) collectively are likely to witness a growth rate of around 5.3% this year, E&Y appeared confident that RGMs' robust economic performance will not be derailed by slackening demand, turbulent and volatile markets and credit liquidity problems in Europe, though it may have had some impact in the recent past. Meanwhile, the E&Y report also expects the Europe to dip into mild recession in H1 2012 while the US to register modest growth in 2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,049.40, higher by 0.80 points or 0.02%.  The index has touched a high and a low of 5,059.55 and 5,021.35 so far. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declining one's on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.19%, ICICI Bank up by 2.14%, AXIS Bank up by 2.13%, JP Associates up by 1.56% and Grasim up by 1.54%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries down by 3.33%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.91%, RIL down by 2.86%, L&T down by 2.41% and Hindalco Industries down by 2.37% were the major losers on the index.

In Asia, most of the markets are closed today. Japanese Nikkei up by 0.07% as US home sales rose to the highest level in almost a year, overlooking Greece's struggle to reach a deal with creditors to ease its debt burden.