Markets likely to get slightly positive start tailing regional peers

The Indian markets despite some choppiness managed the close of green in last session, the European jitters weighed on the sentiments, overlooking the inline inflation numbers for the month of December. Today, the start is likely to be flat-to-positive as the global cues seem to have stablised. There are two major IT sector result announcements of TCS and HCL Technology; traders will be anxiously eyeing the numbers after the disappointments of the Infosys. The airlines stocks will be in limelight as a group of ministers will consider a proposal to allow foreign airlines to buy stake into domestic carriers. While foreign airlines are barred from investing in Indian carriers, other foreign investors are allowed to pick up to 49% stake. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had in an inter-ministerial note in last October proposed that international carriers be allowed to hold a 26% stake in domestic airlines. The ministers will also discuss the group of secretaries' recommendation to allow domestic carriers to import fuel directly rather than buying it from oil marketing companies. This will help airlines save at least a fourth of their expenses of Rs 10,000 crore on aviation turbine fuel.

There is likely to be some jubilation in pharma stocks too, as domestic pharma retail market clocked a solid growth of 15% during 2011.The pharma market grew at 15.7% during December, with growth in key therapy areas, including anti-diabetics, derma and vitamins outperformed the market

Apart from TCS and HCL Tech, Chambal Fertilizers, Kajaria Ceramics, Zee News etc. will be announcing their December quarter numbers.

The US markets remained closed on Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day, unable to give any cue to the other markets. Most of the Asian markets have made a positive start, the Chinese markets was slightly in somber mood ahead of the GDP report, it is being said that the GDP in world’s second-largest economy, probably grew 8.7 percent during Oct-Dec quarter, the slowest pace since the second quarter of 2009.

Back home, Indian equity markets started the fresh week on a sluggish note but managed to eke out some gains by the end of trade as the benchmark indices clawed back into the green terrain in the last leg of trade on getting some supportive leads from the European markets. The frontline gauges met with some resistance around the psychological 4,900 (Nifty) and 16,200 (Sensex) levels in dying moments of trade which pushed the indices to lower levels. Nevertheless, the key gauges managed to extend the uptrend for second straight session as hefty buying in the beaten down information technology and capital goods counters capped the downside risks for the bourses. Stocks from the technology pocket rose ahead of the earnings announcement of bellwethers like TCS and Wipro. But huge losses in Oil & Gas sector limited the upside for the markets as heavyweight Reliance industries plunged around two and half a percent in the session, weighing heavily on the bourses. However, sentiments got some support from the encouraging monthly inflation data which showed that India’s headline inflation plummeted below the uncomfortable 9% for the first time since December, 2010 to the lowest levels in around two years to 7.47%. Earlier on Dalal Street, the benchmark got off to a sedate opening tracking the dismal leads prevailing in Asian markets following S&P's mass rating downgrade of Euro-zone countries. The frontline indices kept losing steam thereafter and even drifted to the lowest point in the session in mid morning trades. On the BSE sectoral space, the Capital Goods counter remained the top gainer in the space with over two percent gains followed by the beaten down Information Technology pocket which surged close to two percent. On the flipside, Oil & Gas counter languished at the bottom of the table with large cuts of over one and half a percent while the defensive Healthcare and rate sensitive Realty and Bankex sectors settled with moderate cuts of around half a percent. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 34.74 points or 0.22% to settle at 16,189.36, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 7.90 points or 0.16% to close at 4,873.90.

Crude oil prices bounced back in the first session of a fresh week as investors added positions in the commodity after tensions over supply disruptions exacerbated since Iran warned its neighbors against making up for the shortfall caused by any ban on its crude exports. The oil prices also got buttressed with successful auction of French Treasury bills leading to depreciation in American greenback against the euro which made the dollar denominated oil prices more lucrative for holders of other currencies. Meanwhile the fuel prices climbed on light volumes as floor trading was closed in the US for the Martin Luther King Jr holiday.

Benchmark crude for February delivery surged $0.96 or 1% to $99.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, February Brent crude climbed $0.76 or 0.65% to end at $111.20 a barrel after trading as high as $111.67 a barrel.