MILD POSITIVE

Indian equity indices, after witnessing eight straight falls, have made a positive start with both the frontline gauges re-conquering their crucial 5,900 (Nifty) and 19,500 (Sensex) levels as investor kept themselves busy in piling up positions in beaten down fundamentally strong stocks. Sentiments also got some support from rally in PSU oil marketing companies, as the Finance Ministry has stated that Rs 25,000 crore additional cash subsidy for the fiscal will be given for selling diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene at controlled prices. Though, the gains remain capped as investors awaiting industrial production numbers for December 2012 to be released later in the day. 

On the global front, the US markets edged lower on Monday and investors took a breather after the recent run-up that pushed the Dow and S&P 500 near all-time highs. Goldman Sachs has grown cautious on global equities in the near term, cutting its recommendation to neutral from overweight on a three-month basis. While, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the positive terrain at this point of time led by the Japanese market which surged over two percent in Tuesday's morning trade after one of the potential contender for the post of Bank of Japan's governor said that additional monetary easing can be justified this year, indicating that Bank of Japan could step up more stimulus.

Back home, on the sectoral front, public sector undertaking witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by oil and gas and auto while, realty, software and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were struggling to get some traction while, the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 812 shares on the gaining side against 828 shares on the losing side while 79 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,489.87; about 29 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 19,460.57, and has touched a high and a low of 19,521.72 and 19,465.33 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,508.09, up by 47.52 points or 0.24%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 58.39% stocks advancing against 36.54% declines. The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined 0.33% and 0.09% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.77%, Oil & Gas up by 0.74%, Auto up by 0.47%, Consumer Durables up by 0.42% and Bankex up by 0.32%. While, Realty down by 5.04%, IT down by 0.70%, TECk down by 0.66%, Power down by 0.54% and Metal down by 0.46% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.48%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.31%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.10%, ICICI Bank up by 0.94% and Dr Reddys Lab up by 0.83%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 1.24%, Infosys was down by 1.21%, Tata Power was down by 1.02%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.02% and Cipla was down by 0.57% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic passenger car sales declined by 12.45 per cent to 173,420 units in January, 2013 from 198,079 units in the same month of 2012. Total sales of commercial vehicles declined by 9.51 per cent to 63,218 units in January, 2013 from 69,865 units in the same month of previous year.

While, motorcycle sales grew by 7.45 per cent to 886,527 units from 825,050 units in the same month previous year on y-o-y basis. Total two-wheeler sales increased by 8.46 per cent to 12,06,937 units in January, 2013 from 11,12,767 units in January, 2012. Moreover, total sales of vehicles across categories registered a growth of 5.31 per cent to 15,61,104 units in January 2013 against 14,82,437 units in the same month of 2012, SIAM added.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,894.35; about 3 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,897.85 and has touched a high and a low of 5,913.30 and 5,892.95 respectively. The index is currently trading at 5,907.00, up by 9.15 points or 0.16%. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ONGC up by 2.55%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.31%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.06%, ICICI Bank up by 0.94% and Dr Reddy's Laboratories up by 0.90%.

On the flip side, JP Associate down by 3.09%, DLF down by 2.25%, Infosys down by 1.27%, Jindal Steel down by 1.17% and Reliance Infrastructure down by 1.02%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Jakarta Composite surged 22.70 points or 0.50% to 4,525.95 and Nikkei 225 soared 266.94 points or 2.39% to 11,420.10.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite was down by 2.70 points or 0.14% to 1,948.20.

Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia are all closed. Hong Kong and Singapore will resume trading on February 13 and Taiwan will reopen on February 14.