MINOR CUTS

Frontline equity indices have cut short some of their losses as encouraging manufacturing data from China partially offset concerns over a batch of downbeat U.S. economic reports and earnings disappointments. However, investors remained wary as they digested several pieces of competing global data and remained uneasy about Greece's protracted debt restructuring talks. China's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index for January rose to 50.5 compared with 50.3 in December, and was higher than the 49.5 forecast by economists. However, Asian equity indices after opening higher were trading on a mixed note. Meanwhile, the US stocks future indices were showing a downtick in the screen trade.

Back home, uptick in the stocks from Auto, Power, Metal and Healthcare counters led to trim of the benchmark's losses, however, stocks from Consumer Durable, Realty and Information Technology (IT) counters remained the week spell of the trade. The BSE benchmark 30 scrip index --Sensex--offloading over 50 points were trading sub 17100 mark. Similarly, widely followed 50 share index- Nifty--shedding over 15 point -was trading over 5100 mark. However, the broader indices opposing the trend, had gained additional traction. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1437:768, while 101 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,134.87, down by 58.68 points or 0.34%. The index has touched a high and a low of 17,210.16 and 17,094.07 respectively. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declining one's on the index.

Broader indices continue to trade in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.57% and 0.93% respectively.  

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 2.08%, Power up by 0.54%, Metal up by 0.38%, Health Care up by 0.35% and Oil and Gas up by 0.29%. While, CD down by 1.07%, Realty down by 1.00%, IT down by 0.94%, Bankex down by 0.89% and TECk down by 0.83% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 3.47%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.38%, M&M up by 2.96%,  Jindal Steel up by 2.71%  and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.40%.

On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.17%, ICICI Bank down by 2.11%, Coal India down by 1.78%, ONGC down by 1.69% and DLF down by 1.46% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, reflecting the impact of the high interest rate regime, all segments, including farm sector, services, industry and personal loans, reported lower credit growth off-take in December. As per the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), growth of non-food credit off-take from banks by major sectors dipped to 15.4% in December.

This is the lowest rate so far in this fiscal. The growth has almost halved from the 27.2% figure registered in the same month of 2010. Total non-food credit disbursement stood at Rs 40.45 lakh crore in December, up from Rs 35.05 lakh crore in the same month of the previous financial year. Credit to agriculture increased by a dismal 5.6% in December 2011, as compared to 25.4% in the previous year. As per the data, total credit disbursement to agriculture and allied areas grew to Rs 4.60 lakh crore in December 2011.

Credit to industry increased by 19.8% in December 2011, down from 31.6% for the same period last year. Total credit disbursement to industry - which includes infrastructure, metals, food processing, rubber, plastic and their products and engineering - was Rs 18.58 lakh crore in December 2011.

Bank credit to the services sector increased by 14.9% y-o-y in December 2011, lower than 29.5% recorded in the previous year. The sector saw bank credit off-take rise to Rs 9.84 lakh crore in December this year. Within the services sector, transport, computer software, tourism and commercial real estate witnessed slower growth in credit off-take whereas disbursements to retail trade went up only marginally.

Credit to Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) increased by 36.2% in December, 2011, as compared with 50.1% in the previous year. Bank credit disbursement to the NBFCs stood at Rs 2.10 lakh crore in December this year. Personal loans increased by 12.3% in December, 2011, as compared with 16.7% in the previous year.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,182.10, down by 17.15 points or 0.33%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,198.35 and 5,167.80 respectively. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declining one's on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 3.61%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.38%, M&M up by 3.08%, Jindal Steel up by 2.93% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.57%.

Coal India down by 2.26%, ICICI Bank down by 2.16%, HDFC down by 1.98%, Sesa Goa down by 1.95% and BPCL down by 1.91% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Hang Seng inched up by 0.02%, Jakarta Composite added 0.25% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.35%. On the flipside, Nikkei 225 lowered by 0.08%, Seoul Composite was down by 0.08%, Shanghai Composite tumbled 0.47% and Straits Times shed 0.44%.