FLAT OPENING

The Indian equity markets have made a flat opening  due to lack of global and domestic triggers. Global cues remain mixed as the US markets continued their bullish trend on Friday and managed to end modestly higher, though economic news from China weighed on the sentiments but hopes of traders increased that now the central banks across the globe will be going for stimulus measures to revive economy. However, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red at this point of time. Back home, traders remained on the safer side awaiting inflation data to be announced later this week and the pace of economic growth amid majority of Indian Inc pegging growth in the range of 6-6.5 percent for 2012-13. Moreover, market-men are still awaiting the announcement on diesel price hike. On the sectoral front public sector undertaking witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by oil and gas and realty while, banking, software and capital goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 819 shares on the gaining side against 584 shares on the losing side while 60 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,551.69; about 6 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,557.74, and has touched a high and a low of 17,594.55 and 17,534.47 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,550.71, down by 7.03 points or 0.04%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 55.98% stocks advancing against 39.92% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.15% and 0.27% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.66%, Oil and Gas up by 0.61%, Realty up by 0.55%, CD up by 0.48% and HC up by 0.45%. While, Bankex down by 0.32%, IT down by 0.25%, CG down by 0.20%, Auto down by 0.09% and FMCG down by 0.04% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.11%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.93%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.49%, Sun Pharma up by 1.24% and GAIL up by 1.06%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank was down by 1.37%, Tata Steel was down by 1.14%, Tata Motors was down by 0.99%, SBI was down by 0.88% and M&M was down by 0.83% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with the slowing economy, index of industrial production (IIP) has scaled down by 1.8% in June, raising concerns about the countries growth in this fiscal. Albeit, Planning Commission's Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has expressed his disappointment in the figure, though affirmed optimism on steps announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram's for revival would help in boosting economic growth of the nation.

He pointed out that the measures planned by the government to boost the economic growth is expected to show results only by second half of the fiscal, probably by September. The industrial production had contracted by 1.8 percent in June mainly due to the poor showing by manufacturing and capital goods sectors, reflecting persistent slowdown in the economy.

Growth in factory output, as measured by the index of industrial production (IIP), was 9.5 percent in June, and 6.9 percent in April-June quarter of 2011-12.However, the industrial output in April-June quarter of 2012-13 declined by 0.1 percent. 

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,316.35; about 4 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,320.40, and has touched a high and a low of 5,328.75 and 5,315.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,318.90, down by 1.50 points or 0.03%. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ONGC up by 2.23%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.78%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.64%, Reliance Infra up by 1.64% and Cairn up by 1.28%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.34%, Siemens down by 1.23%, Tata Motors down by 1.12%, Tata Steel down by 1.09% and SBI down by 0.93%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 11.71 points or 0.54% to 2,157.10, Hang Seng was down 28.08 points or 0.14% to 20,108.04, Jakarta Composite was down 9.24 points or 0.22% to 4,132.33, Nikkei 225 was down 3.25 points or 0.04% to 8,888.19, KOSPI Composite was down 11.18 points or 0.57% to 1,935.22 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 2.84 points or 0.04% to 7,438.28.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up 2.29 points or 0.14% to 1,647.65 and Straits Times was up by 5.38 points or 0.18% to 3,059.58.