JUST IN GREEN

Indian equity markets relinquishing all their gains, are languishing at their lower levels of the day, with benchmark 30 share index Sensex, having slipped into red territory and 50 share index Nifty sticking out its neck just in green, above its 5900 level. Sustained selling pressure by wary investor's ahead of budget session of Parliament that will begin on February 21 with President Pranab Mukherjee's first address to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, mainly have worn out bourses' gains. On the global front, Asian shares continued to trade upbeat, buoyed by rising global equities overnight on an improving global economic outlook, while the yen resumed its decline. Closer home, besides rally of Realty, Oil & Gas and Information Technology, PSU OMCs edged higher on renewed buying. On the flip side, besides profit-booking in Consumer Durable, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Capital Goods counters along with telecom stocks were trading lower after Department of Telecom (DoT) decided to auction 900 mhz spectrum as planned earlier. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which have thumped declines in the ratio of 1357:1054, while 139 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19632.39, down by 3.33 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 19742.42 and 19629.66. There were 9 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices continued to outperform frontline equity indices for fourth consecutive session; BSE Midcap and Small cap indices were trading higher by 0.10% and 0.53% respectively.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.59%, Oil & Gas up by 1.21%, IT up by 0.34%, TECk up by 0.22% and PSU up by 0.07%. While, CD down by 0.99%, FMCG down by 0.47%, CG down by 0.33% Metal down by 0.28% and Auto down by 0.18% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were RIL up by 2.04%, Wipro up by 0.94%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.82%, Coal India up by 0.77% and GAIL India up by 0.70%.

On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.14%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.96%, Tata Motors down by 0.91%, Sterlite Industries down by 0.88% and Hindalco Industries down by 0.71% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government is likely to push key economic reform bills in areas such as insurance, pension and corporate law in the Budget Session of Parliament beginning on February 21. The budget for FY14, which will be preceded by economic survey, is scheduled to be announced on February 28 by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, will also address key issues like declining industrial output, widening fiscal deficit and decelerating economic growth.

The government's economic agenda includes passage and consideration of bills on insurance, pension and Food Security Law, which has been pending from long time. The insurance and pension bills is seeking to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in the sector from 26 percent to 49 percent, while the Food Security Bill seeks to provide subsidized food grain to people below poverty line.

However, more than 70 items, including 16 new Bills, are part of the government's business for the budget session of parliament. The session, which will have 34 sittings in two laps, will begin on Feb 21. Other important economic reforms bills on the economic agenda includes Forward Contracts (Regulation) Amendment Bill, Agricultural Bio Security Bill, the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill and the Companies Bill, which is yet to be vetted by the Rajya Sabha.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,941.80, up by 2.10 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 5,971.00 and 5,940.80. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 2.94%, Reliance up by 2.12%, BPCL up by 2.06%, Ambuja Cements up by 1.71% and HCL Tech up by 1.20%.

On the flip side, CIPLA down by 1.44%, HUL down by 0.67%, NTPC down by 0.65%, Maruti down by 0.65% and Tata Motors down by 0.57% were the major losers on the index.

 Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.53%, Hang Seng rose 0.11%, Jakarta Composite strengthened 0.51%, Nikkei 225 increased 0.84%, Straits Times added 0.21%, KOSPI Composite surged 1.95% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.86%.  On the flip side, KLSE Composite was down by 0.26% was the lone loser amongst the Asian pack.