BEARISH

Sentiments continued to remain bearish on Monday's morning trade tracking weak global cues post disappointing US payroll data last week. Moreover, all the Asian peers were trading in the red dampening the investors' sentiments. Back home, BSE's -- Sensex -- and NSE's - Nifty -- lost their crucial 17,400 and 5,300 mark respectively as funds and retail investors locked in gains recorded in the past few sessions amid a weakening trend overseas. Except consumer durables, all other sectoral indices were trading in the red. Metal, capital goods, bank and power stocks led the downtrend with each down by over a percent. The broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 704 shares on the gaining side against 807 shares on the losing side while 59 shares remained unchanged. 

Among individual stocks, IVRCL is trading higher by about 5 percent on reports that the Subhash Chandra-controlled Essel, which is now the largest shareholder in IVRCL, has offered to buy out promoter Sudhir Reddy's stake at Rs 90 per share. However, Kingfisher Airlines lost 2% on profit booking; the stock had rallied 20% in previous two sessions after the company paid salaries to all employees.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,407.66; about 79 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,486.02, and has touched a low of 17,320.77 while high remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 17,339.04 down by 146.98 points or 0.84%. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 44.84% stocks advancing against 51.40% declines. The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.44% and 0.04% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were CD up by 0.14%. While, Metal down by 1.68%, CG down by 1.62%, Bankex down by 1.22%, Power down by 1.11% and Oil and Gas down by 0.92% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.19%, HUL up by 0.99%, TCS up by 0.47%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.26% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.21%.

On the flip side, Hindalco was down by 2.85%, Tata Steel was down by 2.17%, BHEL was down by 2.10%, ICICI Bank was down by 1.97% and L&T was down by 1.82% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the high level of inflation has impacted people's capacity to save which has led to a slower growth in deposits with banks. Also people have preferred to invest in mutual funds, gold and property rather than savings accounts. Consequently, the liquidity position remains tightened.

As per data released by the RBI, deposits grew by 13.4% during the one-year period ending March 23, 2012. This is much lesser than the projected growth of 17% estimated by the RBI in its annual monetary policy statement for 2011-12.

According to the latest data released by the RBI, deposits with commercial banks grew to Rs 60.72 lakh crore as on March 23, 2012 from Rs 53.55 lakh crore on March 25, 2011. The data further showed that bank loans also increased by over 17% to Rs 47.54 lakh crore as on March 23, against Rs 40.60 lakh crore on March 25 last year. With a slowdown in the economy combined with higher foreign direct investments, options like mutual funds, gold and property were seen as more lucrative options rather than savings deposits. 

As far as any improvement of deposit growth in banks in future is concerned, bank officials are of the view that if inflation is controlled- especially food prices, liquidity will ease automatically. RBI too had expected the inflation to cool down to 7% levels. 

The data also revealed that credit towards food was higher at Rs 81,303.89 crore as on March 23, 2012 against Rs 64,282.84 crore on March 25 last year. RBI is scheduled to come out with annual monetary policy for the current fiscal on April 17.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,282.50; about 40 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,322.90, and has touched a high and a low of 5,287.90 and 5,269.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,278.00, lower by 44.90 points or 0.84%. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy up by 1.89%, Tata Power up by 1.34%, HUL up by 1.08%, Dr Reddy up by 0.69% and TCS up by 0.48%.

On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.85%, Tata Steel down by 2.28%, BHEL down by 2.14%, JP Associates down by 1.98% and ICICI Bank down by 1.92%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 5.41 points or 0.23% to 2,301.14, Jakarta Composite was down 14.56 points or 0.35% to 4,151.81, KLSE Composite was down 4.76 points or 0.30% to 1,594.11, Nikkei 225 was down 84.74 points or 0.87% to 9,603.71, Straits Times was down 22.35 points or 0.75% to 2,963.85, Seoul Composite was down 27.20 points or 1.34% to 2,001.83 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 70.37 points or 0.91% to 7,635.89. 

Markets in Hong Kong remained closed on Monday on account Easter holiday.