FLAT OPENING

After witnessing biggest selloff since July 2012 in previous session, Indian equity benchmarks have made a flat opening with 50-share Nifty index holding key 5,850 levels in morning trades supported buying in software and technology counters. Investors kept themselves busy in piling up positions in Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra on the back of Gartners' report that healthcare providers' spending on IT will increase by seven percent this year. Sentiments also got some boost from rise in state-owned oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC on the back of plunge in crude oil prices on getting some weak economic data and as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed oil stockpile in the US increased more than expected.

However, investors shrugged off sluggish global cues as the US markets extended their declining trend on Thursday, though there was some recovery in the late trade but traders continued cashing in on the recent strength in the markets and were concerned after Labor Department's report showing that initial jobless claims climbed to 362,000 in the week ended February 16. While, Asian counters exhibited mixed trend in early trade on Friday.

Back home, on the sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and realty while, auto, consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 895 shares on the gaining side against 904 shares on the losing side while 97 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,341.90; about 16 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,325.36, and has touched a high and a low of 19,366.64 and 19,299.53 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,339.94, up by 14.58 points or 0.08%. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 49.22% stocks advancing against 42.48% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks. The BSE Mid-cap index was up by 0.08% while Small-cap index was down by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.14%, TECk up by 1.06%, Realty up by 0.95% Oil & Gas up by 0.77% and Health Care up by 0.31%, while Auto down by 1.01%, Consumer Durables down by 0.41%, FMCG down by 0.30%, Metal down by 0.28% and Capital Goods down by 0.11% were the losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.66%, ONGC up by 1.52%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.52%, Infosys up by 1.27% and Wipro up by 1.18%.

On the flip side, HDFC was down by 2.45%, Tata Motors was down by 2.35%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.11%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.94% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.75% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) emphasis not merely on economic development but on inclusive growth to bring more poor and marginal people under its ambit. While addressing an event, Ahluwalia said in the 12th plan, we have actually set out a different objective for inclusive growth also.

Regarding the inclusive growth, he said that regionally balanced inclusive growth rate makes every state able to do better than the past, which narrows the gap between different communities and also brings gender equality, upliftment of women, improving their educational condition and social status.

By adding further, he said a number of policies and implementation by the state governments is required to achieve a high inclusive growth in 12th five year plan. Ahluwalia said 'in the 12th plan the most interesting things we find is that the states which were earlier viewed as being backward have now begun to improve their growth quite substantially.'

Expressing view on the economic growth, Ahluwalia said that presently the economy is growing at the low rate of 5 percent or little bit more than that and we are concerned for it because lower growth means less jobs. He added that for the next five years, we can expect an average of about 8 percent economic growth.

Further, to achieve high economic growth in future, the government need to make sure that the young generation are educated and equipped with both the educational and skill weapons in order to deal with rapidly changing and increasingly globalizing world, which is a huge challenge for the country.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,837.95; about 14 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,852.25, and has touched a high and a low of 5,862.30 and 5,837.75 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,852.05, down by 0.20 point. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.70%, DLF up by 1.58%, Sun Pharma up by 1.45%, ONGC up by 1.44% and Wipro up by 1.43%.

On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.36%, Tata Motors down by 2.25%, JP Associate down by 1.74%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.27% and M&M down by 0.98%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite slipped 0.42 points or 0.02% to 2,325.53, Hang Seng decreased 62.01 points or 0.27% to 22,844.66, Jakarta Composite dipped 4.59 points or 0.10% to 4,627.81 and Straits Times was down by 6.15 points or 0.19% to 3,281.45.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite rose 1.89 points or 0.12% to 1,615.94, Nikkei 225 added 35.50 points or 0.31% to 11,344.63, KOSPI Composite surged 10.25 points or 0.51% to 2,025.47 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 6.03 points or 0.08% to 7,963.49.