MARKETS FLAT

Domestic benchmarks prolong their southbound journey and local bourses have made gap-down start with Nifty breaching 5,050 level amid weakening trend in global markets. But, the market trimmed most of their initial losses and turned flat as investors closely watching April index of industrial production (IIP) which is due to be announced later in the day today. Though, the industrial production are likely to remain weak but could come better than previous month of -3.5 per cent, however if it still remains in contraction mood, the market sentiments will get hurt. The global cues too remained unsupportive; US stocks fell overnight as Europe's aid package for Spanish banks did little to alleviate investor concerns about the euro zone's finances and a slowdown in the wider global economy while, all the Asian equity indices were trading in the red at this point of time, indicating somber investors' sentiments. Back home, on the sectoral front, realty, consumer durables and auto remained the top gainers while, fast moving consumer goods, software and healthcare remained the major loser on the BSE sectoral indices. Moreover, the broader indices too were trading flat but in the green. The market breadth on the BSE was equally divided; there were 685 shares on the gaining side against 687 shares on the losing side while 78 shares remained unchanged.

Bucking the trend, PSU oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC all edged higher in the trade as crude oil prices got pounded by over one and half a percent on week's first trading session and registered third straight negative close. The prices were pummeled down after reports showed that leading oil producer Saudi Arabia contemplated the idea of increasing OPEC's output target, despite falling oil prices.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,570.51; about 98 points lower compared to its previous closing of 16,668.01, and has touched a high and a low of 16,659.97 and 16,553.47 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 16,657.04, down by 10.97 points or 0.07%. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has been evenly divided with 47.24% stocks advancing against 47.38% declines. The broader indices too were trading flat at this point of time; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.08% and 0.06% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 0.66%, CD up by 0.60%, Auto up by 0.42%, Bankex up by 0.28% and PSU up by 0.23%. While, FMCG down by 0.38%, IT down by 0.35%, HC down by 0.34%, TECk down by 0.26% and Metal down by 0.24% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 0.88%, M&M up by 0.86%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.78%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.68% and Tata Motors up by 0.62%.

On the flip side, Wipro was down by 1.67%, Dr Reddy was down by 1.61%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.07%, ITC was down by 0.88% and SBI was down by 0.58% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India and Kazakhstan have agreed to enhance trade cooperation in textile sector including the technology exchanges post the third meeting of Joint Working Group (JWG) on Textiles. Kazakhstan will consider enhancing their imports of apparel and clothing from India and also source other textiles products from India while, India decided to provide training facilities in the textiles sector.

Further, the JWG in its third session considered the issues at length like: incentives available for Textiles and clothing sector for investment; development of textiles sphere of cotton and MMF blends, particularly through setting up of JVs in the SEZ 'Ontustyk', profile of Kazakhstan imports of textiles and clothing and its major source of such imports along with the investment opportunities in SEZ 'Ontustyk'.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between State Authority Directorate of SEZ -- Ontustyk -- B R Maulenov and Apparel Export Promotion Council represented by H K L Magu was also signed after the meeting and the purpose of the MoU is expression of desire for the furthering mutual trust and cooperation so that both sides benefits from each other and simultaneously grow. The next JWG meeting will be held in Shymkent in 2013.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,015.50; about 39 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,054.10, and has touched a high and a low of 5,050.50 and 5,015.15 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,050.00, down by 4.10 points or 0.08%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 1.37%, BPCL up by 1.16%, Cipla up by 1.06%, M&M up by 0.92% and PNB up by 0.78%.

On the flip side, Dr Reddy down by 1.62%, Wipro down by 1.55%, Ranbaxy down by 1.52%, HCL Tech down by 1.33% and Jindal Steel down by 1.10%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity markets were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite plunged by 23.35 points or 1.01% to 2,282.51, Hang Seng Index declined by 163.02 points or 0.86% to 18,790.61, Jakarta Composite slipped 34.53 points or 0.89% to 3,831.68, KLSE Composite shed 5.26 points or 0.33% to 1,573.15, Nikkei 225 plummeted 110.14 points or 1.28% to 8,514.76, Straits Times Index dropped 20.66 points or 0.74% to 2,767.15, KOSPI Composite Index sank 18.68 points or 1.00% to 1,848.36 and Taiwan Weighted slumped 73.98 points or 1.04% to 7,046.25.