MARKETS FLAT WITH NEGATIVE BIAS

Indian equity benchmarks are trading cautiously near its pre-close level with negative bias as investors remain concerned ahead of the WPI inflation numbers scheduled to be announced later in the day. There is wide expectation that the inflation figures cooled down to around 7% in January from its last month's reading of 7.18%. Though, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has warned that the inflation still remains above its acceptable levels but a slowing trend may prompt it to opt a more lenient view. However, rally in PSU oil marketing companies were providing some support to the markets as shares of BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher on plan to raise petrol price by Rs 1 per litre and diesel by 50 paise a litre if they get the informal nod of oil minister Veerappa Moily.

Global cues remained supportive as US market closed mostly higher overnight despite slowing retail sales. US retail sales barely grew in January, suggesting a tax increase at the beginning of the year constrained consumers. Sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% last month, or by 0.2% excluding the auto sector. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time. South Korean KOSPI Composite trading in the green after hitting a three-week closing high and logging their biggest daily percentage gain since January 2 on Wednesday as investors cheered a pause in the yen's decline. 

Back home, on the sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by metal and public sector undertaking while, auto, healthcare and capital goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were struggling to get some traction while, the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 740 shares on the gaining side against 1079 shares on the losing side while 76 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,626.81; about 18 points lower compared to its previous closing of 19,608.08, and has touched a high and a low of 19,639.83 and 19,588.99 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,606.25, down by 1.83 points or 0.01%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 39.81% stocks advancing against 56.23% declines. The broader indices too were outperforming with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices decline 0.32% and 0.36% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.45%, PSU up by 0.39%, Teck up by 0.36% and Oil & Gas up by 0.36%. While, Auto down by 1.21%, Health Care down by 0.64%, Capital Goods down by 0.54%, Consumer Durables down by 0.53% and Power down by 0.27% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.64%, TCS up by 1.64%, NTPC up by 1.25%, Infosys up by 1.11% and Tata Steel up by 0.90%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki was down by 2.83%, Wipro was down by 2.47%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 2.39%, Tata Motors was down by 2.33% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.98% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, snapping eight months declining trend, India's exports rose at an annual rate of 0.82% at $25.58 billion in January, with imports too rising by 6.12% at $45.58 billion for the month, leaving a trade deficit of $19.99 billion. Export and imports stood at level of $25.37 billion and at $42.95 billion respectively in January, 2012. However, exports between April and January fell 4.86% to $239.68 billion as against $251.93 billion in the same month of the previous year.

Adding to the country's economic gloom and heightening worries about its trade and current account deficits, exports have fallen since last year as demand slowed from major sales destinations. Meanwhile, cumulative value of imports for the period April-January, 2012-13 was at $406.85 billion as against $406.82 billion registering a positive growth of 0.01% over the same period last year.

Optimistic on this data, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said, the government is hopeful that exports in January will help close the trade gap. The trade deficit for April-January, 2012-13 was estimated at $167.16 billion much higher than the deficit of $154.89 billion during April -January, 2012.

He further added that gold imports are a matter of concern and a balanced approach is needed towards gold import. India, which imported about 750 tons of gold last year, with 60 percent of that through banks has already increased the import duty on gold, which now stands at 6%.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,933.20; about flat as compared to its previous closing of 5,932.95 and has touched a high and a low of 5,940.20 and 5,924.80 respectively. The index is currently trading at 5,929.00, down by 3.95 points or 0.07%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ONGC up by 1.55%, TCS up by 1.40%, NTPC up by 1.28%, Infosys up by 1.06% and Tata Steel up by 1.06%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.65%, Tata Motors down by 2.43%, Wipro down by 2.39%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.09% and Siemens down by 2.08%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng surged 219.27 points or 0.94% to 23,434.43, Jakarta Composite rose 26.19 points or 0.57% to 4,597.76, KLSE Composite added 2.46 points or 0.15% to 1,633.62, Nikkei 225 increased 59.17 points or 0.53% to 11,310.58 and KOSPI Composite was up by 2.27 points or 0.11% to 1,978.34.

On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 6.96 points or 0.21% to 3,294.08.

China and Taiwan markets remained closed for the trade today.