SLUGGISH

Indian equity benchmarks continued to choppy in noon trade as investors adopted cautious approach ahead of key macroeconomic data such as industrial production and inflation which is expected in the early part of the week. Sentiments also got dampened after Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) reported domestic passenger car sales declined by 12.45 per cent to 1,73,420 units in January this year compared to 1,98,079 units in the same month of 2012. However, the downside remained capped as some support came in from shares of select public sector undertaking (PSU) companies like Hindustan Copper, HMT, National Fertilisers, RCF, Engineers India and Dredging Corporation of India, which edged higher during the trade on the back of heavy volumes after offer-for-sales (OFS) of Oil India and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) got strong response from the overseas investors.

Global cues remained muted as majority of bourses in Asia remained shuttered for the Lunar New Year. While, the US markets ended higher on Friday after US trade deficit contracted to its narrowest in three years and Nasdaq closed at its best level in last three years. Back home, on the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by healthcare and consumer durables while, capital goods, oil and gas and technology remained the few losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading mixed while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,153 shares on the gaining side against 1,329 shares on the losing side while 135 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19482.49 down by 2.28 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 19543.44 and 19416.94. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index up by 0.03% and Small cap index was down by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 0.99%, Health Care up by 0.58%, Consumer Durables up by 0.51%, PSU up by 0.35% and Bankex up by 0.30% while, Capital Goods down by 0.54%, Oil & Gas down by 0.17%, TECk down by 0.16%, FMCG down by 0.11% and IT down by 0.01% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.99%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.34%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.08%, Tata Motors up by 1.52% and Sterlite Industries up by 1.48%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.53%, ONGC was down by 1.42%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.10%, L&T was down by 1.02% and Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.95% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the industry body ASSOCHAM survey, nearly 54 crore Indians will have debit cards in the next three years, which would be a massive step forward for banking industry to make the deeper financial inclusion. While, the number of credit cards would remain at less than three crore during the same period.

As per ASSOCHAM, by the end of last year, nearly 31.44 crore bank customers were issued debit cards, which are growing at a compound annual rate of 18 percent. With the focus on higher bank inclusion, this pace is expected to be sustained, if not improved and this would take the number of bank debit cards to well over 54 crore in the next three years, the study said.
Regarding credit cards, ASSOCHAM said that the number of credit cards, largely a phenomenon in metro cities among the middle and more affluent classes, is not growing at even half the rate of the debit cards. Till December 2012, the number of credit cards in the market was just 1.88 crore, with an annual growth of six to seven percent.

Explaining the reason for lower credit card growth, the study said that given the exorbitant rates of interest and excessive penal rates for even minor delay in payments, consumers are keeping themselves away from credit cards. Further, ASSOCHAM president Rajkumar Dhoot said that the lowest growth in the credit card is blamed to the card issuers, which have kept so many hidden charges, making users feel deceived.

Besides regular news of misuse of credit card transactions, increasing cyber crimes, hacking and data theft have also led to loss of public confidence in plastic money, especially credit cards. However, the debit cards provide a lot of safety to its customers and are largely being used for cash withdrawal and not much at the merchandise stores. 'Debit cards are performing the role of bank cashiers, through ATMs' the ASSOCHAM study pointed out.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,899.95, down by 3.55 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 5,924.15 and 5,879.10. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 3.21%, Dr Reddy's Laboratories up by 2.49%, Axis Bank up by 2.36%, HUL up by 1.99% and Tata Motors up by 1.49%.

On the flip side, IDFC down by 2.38%, ACC down by 2.05%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.71%, ONGC down by 1.47% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.18%, were the major losers on the index.

Majority of bourses in Asia remained shuttered for the Lunar New Year, except Jakarta Composite was up 11.12 (0.25%). 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.