MARKETS TRADE FLAT

Indian equity benchmarks are trading near their neutral line as investors remained cautious ahead of key macroeconomic data such as industrial production and inflation which is expected in the early part of the week. The December IIP data on Feb 12 and January wholesale price index (WPI) inflation figure on Feb 14 will be in focus. However, some optimism came in after the Finance Minister P Chidambaram indicated that he would bring in major changes in the Budget to boost equity culture among retail investors and address concerns that this group preferred financial assets over physical ones, mainly gold. Meanwhile, India's third national-level stock exchange, the MCX-SX, will go live with equity cash and derivatives trading from today. MCX-SX will trade 1,116 equity stocks on its platform under the permitted category rules.

On the global front, the US markets ended higher on Friday after US trade deficit narrowed to its narrowest in three years and Nasdaq closed at its best level in last three years. While, most of the Asian markets are closed today, rest of the trading ones are trading in the green terrain at this point of time. Meanwhile, China has become the world's biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, surpassing the US.

Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and healthcare while, fast moving consumer goods, capital goods and public sector undertaking remained the few losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,257 shares on the gaining side against 635 shares on the losing side while 86 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,517.59; about 32 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,484.77, and has touched a high and a low of 19,543.44 and 19,450.47 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,497.23, up by 12.46 points or 0.06%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 50.03% stocks advancing against 44.56% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.15% and 0.18% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 0.98%, Realty up by 0.82%, Health Care up by 0.56%, Bankex up by 0.39% and Auto up by 0.27% while, FMCG down by 0.73%, Capital Goods down by 0.03% and PSU down by 0.01% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.86%, Tata Motors up by 1.77%, Wipro up by 1.69%, Cipla up by 1.67% and Sterlite Industries up by 1.23%.

On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.51%, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.18%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.99%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.88% and Coal India was down by 0.77% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the union cabinet has given its approval for the formation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project and also permitted public sector natural gas major GAIL India to join the SPV. The four countries involved in the project signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) along with a Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA).

The projected 1,080-km long worth $7.6-billion TAPI project will transport gas from Turkeminstan (144 km in Turkmenistan, 735 km in Afghanistan and 800 km in Pakistan) will have a capacity to transport 90 mmscmd of gas in which 38 mmscmd each are for India and Pakistan and the remaining 14 mmscmd for Afghanistan. However, this 14 mmscmd is now available to India and Pakistan as the Afghanistan has said that it does not require the gas at present, but may approach Turkmenistan in future.

As per the union cabinet statement, TAPl is required to have an initial contribution of $ 20 million that is $5 million from an identified entity from each of the four participating countries, while India's Navratna company, GAIL is empowered to make investment at this project from country side.

In the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) and Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA), a suitable provision for security and safety of the pipeline has been made. The SPV would also take up the feasibility study and design work of the pipeline to meet the agreed timelines, as well as search for a consortium lead. Further, need of an active interest in the project by all the partner countries at this stage has been asked which would sustain the credibility of the project and generate interest in the international market and would also pave the way for selection of an appropriate consortium leader in the future.  

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,920.05; about 16 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,903.50, and has touched a high and a low of 5,924.15 and 5,887.15 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,900.35, down by 3.15 points or 0.05%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.86%, Cipla up by 1.83%, Axis Bank up by 1.77%, Tata Motors up by 1.73% and Wipro up by 1.50%.

On the flip side, IDFC down by 1.88%, ITC down by 1.69%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.48%, ACC down by 1.46% and Grasim down by 1.12%, were the major losers on the index.

Majority of bourses in Asia remained shuttered for the Lunar New Year, except Jakarta Composite was up 21.02 (0.46%). Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia are all closed. Malaysia will reopen on February 12, Hong Kong and Singapore will resume trading on February 13 and Taiwan will reopen on February 14.