MARKETS FLAT

After rising over 400 points on Friday following Samajwadi Party's support to the government, key domestic benchmarks have made a flat opening, weighed down by weak global markets. The US markets ended flat on Friday though Spain's efforts to seek a bailout gave some support in early trade but late hours sell-off in some sectors washed the gains. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red at this point of time on concern that talks among European leaders to resolve the region's debt crisis are not getting any headway. Also, there was report of decline in optimism in Chinese manufacturers and retailers, putting additional pressure on the regional indices.

Back home, the sentiments remained choppy in early deals after international rating agency Standard & Poor's cut India's GDP forecast to 5.5%. Earlier, Indian rating agency CRISIL too had slashed its forecast for the country's GDP growth to 5.5% from 6.5% earlier for this fiscal. HSBC has also cut growth forecast for fiscal 2012-2013. However, losses remain capped in the morning trade as some amount of strength came from public sector oil marketing companies. Shares of BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher on reports that they are planning to revise petrol prices downward due to falling international crude oil prices and a strengthening rupee. Sentiments also got some support as rupee continued its gaining streak against the dollar, inching closer to 53 levels on dollar selling by exporters. The Indian currency, in the early deals, was trading at 53.16 against the dollar, up 0.53 percent, or 28 paise, from Friday's close of 53.45.

On the sectoral front, power witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and auto while, fast moving consumer goods, capital goods and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while the market breadth on the BSE was evenly divided; there were 1,442 shares on the gaining side against 507 shares on the losing side while 63 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,756.31; about 4 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,752.83, and has touched a high and a low of 18,811.13 and 18,687.60 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,715.29, down by 37.54 points or 0.20%. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 71.67% stocks advancing against 25.20% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.36% and 0.38% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Power up by 0.93%, Realty up by 0.32%, Auto up by 0.31%, HC up by 0.18% and PSU up by 0.16%. While, FMCG down by 0.91%, CG down by 0.51%, Oil and Gas down by 0.36%, IT down by 0.17% and TECk down by 0.05% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.71%, Tata Power up by 2.48%, Jindal Steel up by 2.05%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.72% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.34%.

On the flip side, HUL was down by 1.63%, ITC was down by 1.47%, L&T was down by 1.34%, Coal India was down by 1.16% and Tata Motors was down by 0.82% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, after Centre's strong policy reform measures of raising price of diesel by Rs 5 a liter and a cap on subsidized LPG cylinders despite strong protests from opposition, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan has stated that, though the government's new measure will curtail the fiscal deficit of the nation, it might result in an immediate push in price index in the short run. Though, he also expressed confidence that the nation's growth will attain the projected 6.7% in the current fiscal, while agriculture is expected to perform better than expected, with better monsoon rains.

Rangarajan also affirmed that the growth rate from next year onwards is expected to improve compared to that of present year. He also supported government's decision of allowing FDI in multi brand retail, by pointing that it will result in price reduction and improvement of infrastructural facilities in the agricultural marketing field and will also cause organized and much improved marketing system. He ruled out the fear that the foreign interventions will impact our small retailers negatively, by stating that in advanced countries neighborhood retailers continue to exist despite the presence of large number of departmental stores.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,691.95; flat compared to its previous closing of 5,691.15 and has touched a high and a low of 5,709.85 and 5,671.50 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,683.60, up by 7.55 points or 0.13%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.73%, BHEL up by 2.67%, Jindal Steel up by 2.28%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.92% and RInfra up by 1.71%.

On the flip side, HUL down by 1.76%, L&T down by 1.39%, ITC down by 1.36%, Coal India down by 1.10% and Tata Motors down by 0.82%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Jakarta Composite was up 22.79 points or 0.54% to 4,221.83, KLSE Composite was up 13.07 points or 0.80% to 1,610.63, Nikkei 225 was up 39.17 points or 0.43% to 9,070.83, Straits Times was up 1.41 points or 0.05% to 3,076.82 and KOSPI Composite Index was up by 3.66 points or 0.18% to 1,998.71.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down 5.75 points or 0.28% to 2,032.44, Hang Seng was down 13.40 points or 0.06% to 20,748.34 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 11.03 points or 0.14% to 7,765.62.