MARKETS TURN CHOPPY

Local equity markets have further slipped into red as a surge in crude oil prices stoked macroeconomic worries amidst listless global cues since the regional counterparts are trading mixed at this point of time. Though the surge of the Wall Street led the benchmark indices open in positive for the second consecutive session but the markets are likely to remain choppy ahead of the derivatives expiry today. Overnight, the Wall Street soared to new highs with the technology heavy index Nasdaq rising to 10-year highs as Fed said that the interest rates will continue to remain at near zero levels thereby boosting investors sentiment. However, back home, the surge in the Index Heavyweight - ICICI Bank - ahead of it reporting its Q4 results is counterbalancing the fall of market bellwether Reliance Industries - which has plunged for fourth straight session, thereby limiting the losses of the local bourses. Meanwhile, the broader indices for the second straight session are showing immense resilience and are currently outperforming their larger peers. The 30 scrip sensitive index on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) - Sensex - is trading below is 19500 mark while the 50 share barometer Index on National Stock Exchange (NSE) - Nifty - despite being in red is trading above its 5800 level. On the BSE Sectoral front, stocks from Consumer Durables (CD), Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), Health Care (HC), Capital Goods (CG) and Bankex counters are enticing investor's attention, while stocks from Realty, IT, TECk and Power are languishing down in bottom. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which are outnumbering declines in the ratio of 1081: 1051, while, 86 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,421.68, down by 27.01 points or 0.14%. The index has touched a high and low of 19,542.05 and 19,391.28 respectively. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices gained 0.20% and 0.35%, respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.61%, PSU up by 0.34%, HC up by 0.23%, CG up by 0.15% and Bankex up by 0.05%. While Realty down by 1.37%, IT down by 0.34%, TECk down by 0.18%, Power down by 0.17% and Oil & Gas down by 0.15% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.59%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.73%, Sterlite Industries up by 0.55%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.57% and ICICI Bank up by 0.33%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 1.40%, RCom down by 1.19%, HDFC down by 1.08%, M&M down by 0.90% and Hero Honda down by 0.84% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India's apparel exports have seen significant traction in last few months as the demand from key export destinations like the US and European Union improves. In the month of March 2010, total apparel shipments stood at $1209 million, recording a growth of nearly 18% when compared with same month a year ago.

On a full year basis, apparel exports during April-March 2011 increased by 4.23% at $11.16 billion as compared to $10.71 billion in the year-ago period, showed the data released by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) of India. Apparel exports were weak in the initial months of the fiscal however significant traction was visible since the month of November 2010, which helped the industry end the year in green, said AEPC.

Apparel exports to the US, which is the most important market for India's garment makers, increased by 12.5% in the month of February to $586.9 million against $521.7 in Feb 2010. For the same period, overall US imports of apparels witnessed an increase of 16.9% from the corresponding period of previous year and amounted to $11.7 billion. Clearly, while Indians have been improving exports to the US, they are being outpaced by some other countries like China.

India's textile industry was one of the worst hit by impact of global slowdown which saw the demand from developed countries like the US and EU going down considerably. While the overall demand scenario has improved over last one year, apparel exporters have been facing increasing competition from countries like China and Bangladesh as all key exporters try to hold on to their market share. The industry wants the government to ensure that cotton and yarn prices come down from the elevated levels so that exporters can compete in global markets on price basis.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,821.95, lower by 11.95 points or 0.20%.The index has touched a high and low of 5,856.40 and 5,814.30 respectively. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 2.35%, ONGC up by 1.59%, Sesa Goa up by 1.06%, Sterlite Industries up by 0.74% and HCL Tech up by 0.70%.

Cairn down by 1.80%, Jindal Steel down by 1.49%, Ranbaxy down by 1.36%, HDFC and RCom down by 1.19% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian peers were trading in the green; Hang Seng gained 0.50%, Jakarta Composite inched up by 0.05%, KLSE Composite added 0.23%, Nikkei 225 surged 1.11%, Straits Times increased 0.47%

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite slid 0.08%, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.16% and Seoul Composite shed 0.17%