CAUTIOUS

The key domestic benchmarks have started the trading session on a cautious note with the Sensex and the Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone as uncertainty on global factors casted a negative sentiment among Indian investors. Moreover, the global cues remained sluggish as US stocks slipped overnight while; stock markets across Asian region are exhibiting subdued trends in Thursday's session as market participants lacked conviction to open fresh bets amid unaccommodating tidings from the global front. Back home, Sensex trading a tad below its crucial 17,400 mark while, Nifty managed to hold its psychological 5,300 mark with Infosys, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki leading the gains while, Hindalco, L&T and ICICI Bank felt selling pressure. On the sectoral front, the rate sensitive's realty and banking remained under pressure, after the Reserve Bank of India's governor, Duvvuri Subbarao, said that the probability of raising interest rates is small but did not rule it out due to upside risks to inflation. Meanwhile, cement makers ACC and Ambuja Cements rose more than 2 percent in opening trade ahead of their quarterly results. Moreover, the broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 986 shares on the gaining side against 550 shares on the losing side while 65 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,432.89; about 40 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,392.39, and has touched a high and a low of 17,448.44 and 17,371.35 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,397.51, up by 5.12 points or 0.03%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 61.59% stocks advancing against 34.35% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.40% and 0.25% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, HC up by 0.78%, Auto up by 0.48%, CD up by 0.41%, IT up by 0.33% and TECk up by 0.33%. While, CG down by 0.65%, Realty down by 0.30%, FMCG down by 0.26%, Metal down by 0.22% and Bankex down by 0.14% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.06%, Sun Pharma up by 1.33%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.12%, Cipla up by 0.97% and Coal India up by 0.92%.

On the flip side, BHEL was down by 1.61%, Hindalco was down by 1.03%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.01%, L&T was down by 0.94% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.81% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Oil companies have threatened to raise oil prices if the government does not compensate them for the losses incurred. They have asked the government to allow them to increase the price of petrol by Rs 8.04 per litre (excluding state levies) with immediate effect.

As per oil companies they are suffering losses to the tune of Rs 2,287 crore which have now become unsustainable. If the situation persists, it will impede the ability of the companies to import crude oil and may affect product supply-demand balance.

Indian Oil, which is India's biggest fuel retailer by volume, has stated that state-run refiners cannot sustain a scenario where they import crude oil at $121.29 per barrel and sell at $109.03 per barrel. It is of the view that the government should temporarily regulate petrol prices and pay them the 100% compensation or reduce the excise duty on petrol from Rs14.78/litre by an amount equivalent to the under-recoveries on petrol and simultaneously advise the states to reduce the rates of sales tax, which vary from 15% to 33%. The RBI too in its recent credit policy has spoken in favour of increasing oil prices.

The outburst is a reminder of the fact that petrol prices continue to be controlled by the government inspite of them being officially deregulated. In the month of November-December, crude oil prices shot up to $125 per barrel but the oil companies were not allowed to raise prices in tandem because of the crucial assembly elections. Petrol prices were last revised on December 1 and have remained unchanged from December 16 to March 31.

Indian Oil is also seeking an increase in prices of the three fuels (diesel, kerosene, LPG) sold at subsidized rates as in 2012-13. The combined revenue losses of refiners on such sales could surge to Rs 2.04 trillion from Rs 1.39 trillion a year ago, against which full compensation is yet to be received.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,320.60; about 20 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,300.00, and has touched a high and a low of 5,320.65 and 5,294.55 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,301.60, up by 1.60 points or 0.03%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.16%, Sun Pharma up by 1.40%, Cipla up by 1.18%, Ranbaxy up by 1.03% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.96%.

On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.80%, Reliance Infra down by 1.62%, Hindalco down by 1.15%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.01% and Sesa Goa down by 0.92%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 3.28 points or 0.14% to 2,377.57, Jakarta Composite was down 8.60 points or 0.45% to 4,147.64, KLSE Composite was down 2.67 points or 0.17% to 1,596.19, Nikkei 225 was down 87.42 points or 0.90% to 9,579.84, Seoul Composite was down 8.28 points or 0.41% to 1,996.25 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 4.62 points or 0.06% to 7,609.62.

On the flip side, Hang Seng was up 75.76 points or 0.36% to 20,856.49 and Straits Times was up 0.84 points or 0.03% to 2,999.74.