FLAT START

Indian equity benchmarks have made a flat start and are hovering near their pre-close mark as market participants' trade cautiously on account of February month derivative expiry and the Union Budget 2013-14. The global cues remained supportive as the US markets bounced back and ended higher on Friday, reducing their weekly losses on some supportive European cues. Asian markets too traded firmly in the early trade on Monday with investors still picking up shares battered by last week's steep plunge.

Back home, sentiments got some support as select non-banking finance companies (NBFC) shares like Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, L&T Finance Holdings, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and Reliance Capital all edged higher in early morning deals after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued guidelines for the new bank licences, which will pave the way for both corporate entities and NBFC to begin banking operations. The most important thing is that RBI has not excluded companies or entities from any specific industry from applying for a new bank licence. In other development, the government has exempted merger and takeover plans for loss-making and failing banks from the purview of fair trade regulator Competition Commission for a period of five years.

On the sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and auto while, oil and gas, realty and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,044 shares on the gaining side against 798 shares on the losing side while 97 shares remain unchanged.

The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,005 shares on the gaining side against 739 shares on the losing side while 89 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,365.33; about 48 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,317.01, and has touched a high and a low of 19,382.89 and 19,280.46 respectively. The index is currently trading at 19,323.23, up by 6.22 points or 0.03%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 55.31% stocks advancing against 39.69% declines. The broader indices too were outperforming with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.38% and 0.28% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.44%, TECk up by 1.20%, Auto up by 0.64%, Power up by 0.63% and Health Care up by 0.11%. While, Oil & Gas down by 0.91%, Realty down by 0.36%, FMCG down by 0.31%, Capital Goods down by 0.17% and PSU down by 0.12%  were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.84%, Wipro up by 1.74%, Tata Motors up by 1.57%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.87% and TCS up by 0.78%.

On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.40%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.25%, Coal India was down by 1.13%, Cipla was down by 1.12% and RIL down by 1.00% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, concerned over the industrial unrest witnessed during the two-day nation-wide strike, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, revival in economic growth will help combat industrial tension. As per Ahluwalia, when the industry is back into a normal state, many other tensions like strikes and spiraling prices will go down. 

Around 11 trade unions have called a strike on February 20 and 21 against strict enforcement of labour laws, spiraling prices, creation of social security net for workers in unorganized sector as well as raising minimum wages to Rs 10,000 per month, among others. Industry body Assocham said that the GDP may lose about Rs 26,000 crore due to the strike which has impacted industrial activity and services such as banking and finance.

While addressing an event on leveraging employment generation in the 12th Five Year Plan, Ahluwalia stated the need of public private partnership (PPP) for employment generation and skill development as the number of people in India is not skilled.

Earlier also Ahluwalia emphasized on the fact that the government need to make sure that the young generation are educated and equipped with both the educational and skill weapons in order to deal with rapidly changing and increasingly globalizing world, which is a huge challenge for the country.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,870.55; about 20 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,850.30 and has touched a high and a low of 5,874.25 and 5,837.30 respectively. The index is currently trading at 5,848.75, down by 0.03 points or 0.01%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy up by 4.10%, Power Grid up by 1.88%, Infosys up by 1.71%, Wipro up by 1.71% and Tata Motors up by 1.66%.

On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.63%, DLF down by 1.55%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.51%, ONGC down by 1.45% and CIPLA down by 1.29%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 6.96 points or 0.30% to 2,321.12, Hang Seng increased marginally by 1.27 points or 0.01% to 22,783.71, Jakarta Composite jumped 22.54 points or 0.48% to 4,673.66, KLSE Composite added 3.38 points or 0.21% to 1,625.46, Nikkei 225 surged 194.20 points or 1.71% to 11,580.14 and Straits Times was up by 1.54 points or 0.05% to 3,289.67.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite dipped 3.15 points or 0.16% to 2,015.74 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 12.08 points or 0.15% to 7,974.81.