SLUGGISH MARKET

Key benchmarks have made a flat opening tracking soft global cues. The US markets closed lower overnight on signs of a slowing Chinese economy, the mixed signs of housing data too weighed on the sentiments. Moreover, Asian counters too were trading choppy at this point of time dampening the domestic sentiments. Back home, the protest by gold and jewellery traders has entered the fourth day even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee stick to his stand saying that its imports cause strain on balance of payment and impacts rupee's exchange rate. Meanwhile, Oil exploration stocks fell along with crude oil prices. Cairn India, and ONGC shed by between 0.50- 1.50 percent. Crude oil prices fell overnight with crude futures for April delivery down $2.48 or 2.3 percent, to settle at $105.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Lower crude oil prices will result in lower realizations from crude sales for oil exploration firms. However, the broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while the market breadth on the BSE was evenly divided; there were 752 shares on the gaining side against 760 shares on the losing side while 77 shares remained unchanged.

In the stock specific action, Mahindra Satyam is up 0.6 percent and Tech Mahindra has gained 2 percent after the boards of Satyam Computer Services and Tech Mahindra have announced a merger. The swap ratio has been fixed at 8.5 Satyam shares for every Tech Mahindra Share. While, Kingfisher Airlines got another reprieve on Tuesday, as the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) decided not to suspend its operations. The stock was up by 1.25 percent in the early trade.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,301.16; about 15 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,316.18, and has touched a high and a low of 17,378.08 and 17,275.88 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,282.60, down by 33.58 points or 0.19%. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has been evenly divided with 47.33% stocks advancing against 47.83% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.05% and 0.22% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, HC up by 0.44%, IT up by 0.43%, CD up by 0.38%, TECk up by 0.33% and FMCG was up by 0.22%. While, Metal down by 1.14%, Auto down by 0.69%, Realty down by 0.55%, CG down by 0.50% and Power down by 0.49% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.68%, Tata Motors up by 2.11%, ICICI Bank up by 1.66%, Wipro up by 1.36% and ONGC up by 0.61%.

On the flip side, HUL was down by 1.28%, TCS was down by 1.15%, M&M was down by 0.65%, Coal India was down by 0.44% and HDFC was down by 0.37% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, facing increasing queries on how the government plans to control its fiscal deficit, the Finance Minister has hinted at an increase in fuel price soon. He has stated that he will be discussing the issue with various political parties post the budget session (after 30 March), to work out an overall mechanism through which the issue can be resolved.

The oil companies have also been demanding that prices of petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene be hiked to control the heavy losses they are suffering. Since petrol prices have been deregulated, a hike in them could come in sooner, while hike in prices of other fuels will require political consensus.

Currently oil companies are losing Rs 14.73 a litre on diesel, Rs 30.10 a litre on kerosene and Rs 439.50 per LPG cylinder. They are also losing over Rs 5 a litre on petrol as petrol prices have not moved in tandem with costs. The government has been sanctioning subsidies to the companies to cover the losses. However, this is significantly impacting its expenditure due to the rapid increase in global crude prices.

An increase in fuel prices will help the government cut its subsidy burden and narrow its fiscal deficit. In the current fiscal, the government has provided Rs 65,000 crore in fuel subsidy, which it hopes to trim down to Rs 40,000 crore in 2012-13. It targets to bring down the subsidy bill to below 2% of GDP in FY'13 and its fiscal deficit to 5.1%.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,267.20; about 7 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,274.85, and has touched a high and a low of 5,287.90 and 5,256.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,268.05, up by 6.80 points or 0.13%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 1.56%, TCS up by 1.36%, HUL up by 1.26%, ACC up by 0.86% and Ranbaxy up by 0.82%.

On the flip side, RPower down by 2.62%, Hindalco down by 1.92%, Jindal Steel down by 1.56%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.31% and Tata Motors down by 1.22%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 10.58 points or 0.45% to 2,366.26, Hang Seng was down 84.22 points or 0.40% to 20,804.02, Jakarta Composite was down 1.26 points or 0.03% to 4,020.91, Nikkei 225 was down 62.56 points or 0.62% to 10,079.43, Straits Times was down 10.68 points or 0.36% to 2,992.05, Seoul Composite was down 14.37 points or 0.70% to 2,027.78 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 14.52 points or 0.18% to 7,958.18.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 1.35 points or 0.09% to 1,578.97.