HOLDING GAINS

Indian equity markets have pared some of their early gains but remained well placed in positive territory in the late morning session on Monday. Though, investors were trading cautiously awaiting some definite triggers before firming up their near term view. The BSE Sensex gained 85 points, while the 50-share Nifty advances 21 points. In currency markets, rupee appreciated against US dollar, breaching the key psychological level of 53 to a dollar amid increased dollar inflows. On sectoral front, oil marketing companies gained on expectations of implementing a diesel price hike as early as this week after the government last month allowed companies to raise prices. Selective front line stocks from automobile, banking and realty sectors were trading firm on sustained buying support, while health care and PSU stocks have declined to lower levels on selling pressure. Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda has lost over 5% after posting a net profit of Rs 1011.62 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 as compared to Rs 1289.85 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. Meanwhile, in global markets, Asian markets were trading mostly higher, as investors continued to feel confident about stocks following last week's US jobs report and the Wall Street's rally. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1272 shares on the gaining side against 1059 shares on the losing side while 128 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19866.31 up by 85.12 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 19902.60 and 19846.07. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.09% and Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.30%, Auto up by 0.92%, Consumer Durables up by 0.88%, Bankex up by 0.52% and Metal up by 0.28% While, Health Care down by 0.76%, PSU down by 0.55%, Power down by 0.31% and IT down by 0.05% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.81%, ICICI Bank up by 2.04%, HDFC up by 1.93%, Jindal Steel up by 1.55% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.28%.

On the flip side, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.99%, Cipla was down by 1.97%, BHEL was down by 1.62%, Tata Power was down by 1.32% and ONGC down by 1.20% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in its meeting scheduled to be held this week, is likely to discuss upon the government note on pooling the price of coal - blending the cost of domestic fossil fuel with the imported one.

A couple of days ago the Coal Ministry had circulated a Cabinet note on price pooling, inviting comments from various ministries -- Power, Steel, Shipping, Railways and Planning Commission among others. The Power Ministry, after consultation with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), suggested to the Coal Ministry that the difference in the cost of imported and domestic coal should be added to the cost of indigenous fuel at the time of finalizing proposal for pooling coal prices. Meanwhile, Planning Commission suggested Coal India (CIL), to offset the impact of high import costs by adopting a pooling formula on prices by combining rates of imported and domestic coal.

According to the Central Electricity Authority's (CEA) recommendations, the difference in price of the imported and domestic coal would be transferred on to the cost of domestic coal. Imported coal is approximately priced at Rs 6,000 per tonne and domestic coal at Rs 4,500 per tonne. The approximate difference of Rs 1,500 per tonne, as per the suggestion, should be multiplied by the total quantity of coal to be imported, including the cost of transportation, and the entire sum would be divided on the basis of quality of coal to the power stations.

However, several state governments, including West Bengal and Odisha, have opposed CEA's proposal. Odisha government objected to the proposal stating saying it wasn's relevant to the power generating companies located very close to coal mines, likewise, West Bengal government raising objections to price-pooling,  conveyed to CIL that such a mechanism was not acceptable.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,019.85 up by 20.95 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 6,038.50 and 6,016.60. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.14%, UltraTech Cement up by 3.08%, DLF up by 2.41%, HDFC up by 2.11% and ICICI Bank up by 2.04%.

On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 5.17%, IDFC down by 3.13%, Cipla down by 2.11%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.87% and BHEL down by 1.49% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.32%, Hang Seng surged 0.45%, KLSE Composite increased 0.38%, Nikkei soared 0.55%, Straits Times jumped 0.49% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.86%.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite was down by 0.13% and Jakarta Composite down by 0.01% .