MILD POSITIVE

Indian benchmarks have made a flat-to-positive start of a new future and option series as investors, shrugging off weak global cues, kept themselves busy in buying beaten down fundamentally strong stocks. Globally, the US markets ended modestly lower overnight; the trade remained choppy throughout the day on mixed economic data. Initial jobless claims rose to 368,000 in the week ended January 26. While, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red at this point of time after a gauge of China's manufacturing unexpectedly fell, though the Japanese market were trading up on some good earnings and a weaker yen.

On the domestic front, the eight core sector rose 2.6% in December, lower than the 4.9% posted in the same month a year earlier, dragged down by a decline in coal, natural gas and fertiliser sectors. Sentiments also remained frail as the Reserve Bank of India proposed a steep rise in the provisioning requirement for loan restructuring to five per cent from April 1, against 2.75 per cent at present. Moreover, Oil India were trading under pressure with cut of about a percent, after EGoM fixed Oil India OFS base price at Rs 510, at a discount of a little over 5 per cent to its last day's closing price.

Meanwhile, consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by metal and healthcare while, fast moving consumer goods remained the only loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1084 shares on the gaining side against 518 shares on the losing side while 87 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,907.21; about 12 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,894.98, and has touched a high and a low of 19,966.69 and 19,903.42 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,939.96, up by 44.98 points or 0.23%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 64.18% stocks advancing against 30.67% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap was down by 0.52% and Small cap indices up by 0.46% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 2.10%, Metal up by 0.92%, Health Care up by 0.89%, Oil & Gas up by 0.66% and Power up by 0.65% while, FMCG down by 0.24% was the sole loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.77%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.45%, Tata Steel up by 1.41%, Tata Power up by 1.04% and Coal India up by 1.02%.

On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.78%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.76%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.64%, ITC was down by 0.62% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.60% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh headed first meeting of the newly formed Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) failed to break the logjam over defence clearances to oil and gas activities in 39 offshore areas, including Reliance Industries' producing KG-D6 fields. During the meeting, Manmohan Singh asked the ministries of petroleum and defence to sort out differences on allowing exploration and production particularly in Krishna Godavari basin.

The CCI, which was constituted to expedite the clearance for infrastructure projects of Rs 1,000 crore or more took up issue of defence ministry, declaring 6 blocks in KG basin including KG-D6 producing fields and one in NEC or North East Coast region (RIL's gas discovery area of NEC-25) as 'No-Go' areas and putting stringent conditions on 32 other blocks.

Earlier, Defence Ministry had declared 14 blocks as 'No-Go' areas as they were close to proposed naval base or missile launching range/air force exercise area. But later the Defence Ministry agreed for exploration of 7 blocks in Mahanadi basin. Further, one more block which was previously objected by the Commerce Ministry too was cleared.

Regarding these issues, even I&B Minister Manish Tewari said 'there were certain areas where certain problems were identified and therefore the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has been tasked with responsibility of sitting down with the Ministry of Defence and resolving some of the problems which are there with regard to 39 blocks'. Further, he said that specific timelines have been fixed for both ministries and asked to come back to CCI within one month. 

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 6,040.95; about 6 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,034.75, and has touched a high and a low of 6,052.95 and 6,033.05 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,043.90, up by 9.15 points or 0.15%. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Lupin up by 3.06%, Cipla up by 1.93%, Bajaj-Auto up by 1.53%, Tata Steel up by 1.41% and Tata Power up by 1.14%.

On the flip side, Jaiprakash Associates down by 3.80%, DLF down by 2.07%, PNB down by 1.61%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.04% and Axis Bank down by 0.94%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite slipped 0.40 points or 0.02% to 2,385.02, Hang Seng declined 105.01 points or 0.44% to 23,624.52, Straits Times dropped 2.18 points or 0.07% to 3,280.48, KOSPI Composite decreased 5.78 points or 0.29% to 1,956.16 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 5.81 points or 0.07% to 7,844.21.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite surged 55.81 points or 1.25% to 4,509.52 and Nikkei 225 was up by 43.50 points or 0.39% to 11,182.16.

KLSE Composite remained closed for trade today.