POSITIVE START

Indian equity benchmarks made a flat-to-positive opening amid mixed global cues. Overnight, US market declined, taking a step back from their recent advance. There was some selling pressure due to the uncertain financial situation in Europe and worries about whether lawmakers in Washington will be able to reach an agreement to avoid the automatic spending cuts due to go into effect at the end of the month. However, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time after Chinese exports grew 25.0 percent in January from a year ago, the strongest showing since April 2011 and well ahead of market expectations for a 17 percent rise, while imports also beat forecasts, surging 28.8 percent on the year.

Back home, the frontline gauges somehow managed to keep their head above water after government's offer for sale (OFS) of 9.5% in power sector major NTPC was subscribed 1.7 times. Through this issue, the government mobilized about Rs 11,400 crore and is expected to mobilize another Rs 5,000-7,000 crore through divestments in some more PSUs. Some support came in from power counter as the Power Minister will be meeting financial institutions to discuss issues impacting the growth of power sector. However, selling witnessed in Cement counter after Cement majors such as ACC and Ambuja Cements slipped over 1 per cent in early trade after both the companies reported weaker than expected earnings for the December quarter on Feb 7.

On the sectoral front, consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by auto and capital goods while, oil and gas, public sector undertaking and metal remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were struggling to get some traction and trading in the red while, the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 782 shares on the gaining side against 966 shares on the losing side while 106 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,577.19; about 3 points lower compared to its previous closing of 19,580.32, and has touched a high and a low of 19,632.68 and 19,568.57 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,587.25, up by 6.93 points or 0.04%. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 41.49% stocks advancing against 52.50% declines. The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices decline 0.24% and 0.21% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.90%, Auto up by 0.61%, Capital Goods up by 0.38%, Realty up by 0.12% and FMCG up by 0.05%. While, Oil & Gas down by 0.60%, PSU down by 0.42%, Metal down by 0.40%, Bankex down by 0.27% and Health Care down by 0.15% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.21%, HDFC up by 1.10%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.84%, TCS up by 0.76% and Hindalco Industries up by 0.71%.

On the flip side, Cipla was down by 2.14%, Coal India was down by 1.61%, ICICI Bank was down by 1.14%, RIL was down by 0.79% and Sterlite Industries was down by 0.76% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to contain the current account deficit (CAD) for the current fiscal, a RBI committee, in its report, has suggested limits on the gold import by banks and other government agencies like STC and MMTC, which account for about 56 per cent of the total import of the precious metal. The country's CAD touched a record high of 5.4 percent of GDP or $22.3 billion in the July-September quarter on account of higher capital outflows and decelerated growth in net export of services.

Worried over the rising gold imports, the RBI's report on gold loans stated 'setting value or quantum limits for canalising agencies and banks to import gold can also reduce the demand for gold. Gold imports in the April-December period of 2012 stood at $38 billion. While, in FY12 it was $ 56.5 billion.

As per the RBI report, in the prevailing scenario of global economic slowdown, it has become necessary to check the gold import, which has widened the country's current account deficit. The canalising agencies like MMTC, STC and the nominated banks play a major role in gold imports into the country. These organisations sell the imported gold to jewellery manufacturers and at retail level, it added.

However, the RBI's working group of gold loans also recommended that such limits can be reviewed periodically d the government may remove such restrictions once the Current Account Deficit (CAD) comes down to sustainable level.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,929.10; about 9 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,938.80 and has touched a high and a low of 5,953.30 and 5,929.05 respectively. The index is currently trading at 5,940.00, up by 1.20 points or 0.02%. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.28%, HDFC up by 1.15%, JP Associate up by 1.02%, UltraTech Cement up by 0.88% and Power Grid up by 0.85%.

On the flip side, Ambuja Cements down by 2.68%, Cipla down by 2.09%, Coal India down by 1.64%, ACC down by 1.28% and ICICI Bank down by 1.17%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 8.29 points or 0.34% to 2,426.82, Hang Seng increased 25.63 points or 0.11% to 23,202.63, KLSE Composite added 2.44 points or 0.15% to 1,622.01, Straits Times jumped 9.37 points or 0.29% to 3,271.14 and KOSPI Composite was up by 18.13 points or 0.94% to 1,949.90.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite slipped 1.50 points or 0.03% to 4,501.65 and Nikkei 225 was up by 132.58 points or 1.17% to 11,224.49.

Taiwan Weighted remained shut for the trade today.