MARGINALY POSITIVE

Indian benchmarks- Sensex, Nifty were trading marginally in the green in the late morning session. Sentiments got some support by participants on expectations of an improvement in the liquidity in the market after the RBI reduced Cash Reserve Ratio by 0.25 per cent and covering-up of short positions ahead of Thursday's monthly expiry in the derivatives segment. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time, with continuing weakness in the yen further fuelling a rally in Japanese Nikkei. Back home, the traders were seen piling up position in Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables and Realty while selling was seen in Power, Auto and FMCG sectors. In scrip specific development, Pidilite Industries scaled a record high after reporting stellar Q3 numbers. ICICI Bank gained ahead of its earnings result on Thursday. Crompton Greaves slipped on reporting Rs 189-crore loss for the third quarter of FY13, weighed down by employee liabilities due to restructuring of its operations in Europe. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 6,000 and 20,000 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was positive; advances: declines in the ratio of 1182:835.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20031.92 up by 41.02 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 20073.46 and 20000.32. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.34% and Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.44%, Consumer Durables up by 0.95%, Realty up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.77% and PSU up by 0.35%. While, Power down by 0.25%, Auto down by 0.16%, FMCG down by 0.11% and Capital Goods down by 0.06% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.52%, Sterlite Inds up by 2.12%,RIL up by 1.99%, Cipla up by 1.50%  and  ONGC up by 1.50%.

On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.24%, HDFC was down by 0.98%, Tata Power was down by 0.94% , NTPC was down by 0.83%, and Tata Motors was down by 0.81% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan expressed the need of greater capital inflows to help the economy in dealing with the problem of high current account deficit (CAD). He said 'it is the capital flow which has enabled us to sustain higher level of deficits. Let us not make a demon out of capital flows. Capital flows have been useful and have contributed to the strengthening of the economy.' 

Further, Rangarajan pointed out that there is a need to distinguish between various types of capital inflows in order to utilize their potential as a detoxifying agent to tackle the menace of high CAD. While, 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 outflows and decelerated growth in net export of services. Declining for the eighth month in row, exports contracted by 1.92 percent to $24.8 billion in December, widening the country's trade deficit to $17.6 billion for the month.

Meanwhile, the RBI also expressed concern over the rising CAD, which is expected to threaten macroeconomic stability and impact growth. The apex bank said 'large fiscal deficits will accentuate the CAD risk, further crowd out private investment and stunt growth impulses'. Moreover, to battle out high CAD, the government is trying to attract more foreign funds into the country and has also hiked import duty on gold to contain the high CAD.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,064.15 up by 14.25 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 6,071.95 and 6,053.30. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.57%, Reliance Industries up by 2.04%, BPCL up by 1.84%, DLF up by 1.56%, and Axis Bank up by 1.51%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.16%, NTPC down by 0.92%, Bank Baroda down by 0.90%, Tata Motors down by 0.82%and HDFC down by 0.81% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.14 points or 0.01% to 2,359.11, Hang Seng increased 173.41 points or 0.73% to 23,828.58, Jakarta Composite surged 8.16 points or 0.18% to 4,447.19, Nikkei 225 soared 204.35 points or 1.88% to 11,070.21, Straits Times jumped 17.90 points or 0.55% to 3,277.65, KOSPI Composite added 9.78 points or 0.50% to 1,956.74 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 34.73 points or 0.45% to 7,836.73.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was down by 12.55 points or 0.77% to 1,624.79.