Benchmarks witness consolidation in early trade

The Indian equity markets have witnessed consolidation in early trade after a three consecutive day’s rally amid mixed global cues. On the global front, the US markets made a mix closing overnight while, Asian shares and major currencies were stuck in ranges on Friday ahead of key US jobs data, which will offer more clues over the state of the world's largest economy, while Greek debt restructuring talks dragged on. Back home, RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao has said that ‘the Reserve Bank can't be an inflation targeter, or a core inflation targeter. That will not serve the best interest of the macroeconomic management of the country’. On the sectoral front, consumer durables, healthcare, technology and power sector stocks maintained their upward journey while, metal, oil and gas and realty shares were reeling under pressure. Meanwhile, telecom stocks were mixed after the Supreme Court in its verdict in 2G telecom scam on Thursday, February 2, 2012, quashed 122 telecom licenses issued after January 2008. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 880 shares on the gaining side against 704 shares on the losing side while 57 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,444.25; about 12 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,431.85 and has touched a high and a low of 17,474.38 and 17,401.78 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,410.34, down by 21.51 points or 0.12%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 53.63% stocks advancing against 42.90% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.19% and 0.29% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.95%, HC up by 0.95%, TECk up by 0.39%, Power up by 0.38% and FMCG up by 0.28%. While, Metal down by 1.11%, Oil and Gas down by 0.44%, Realty down by 0.44%, Bankex down by 0.43% and CG down by 0.37% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.01%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.30%, Cipla up by 1.28%, Sun Pharma up by 1.23% and Tata Power up by 1.17%.

On the flip side, Hindalco was down by 2.79%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.38%, Tata Steel was down by 2.03%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.95% and SBI was down by 1.26% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, a national policy will soon be announced to revamp and modernize the postal service department of India. The policy will also aim at expanding the activities of the postal sector and providing affordable services at all points in the country. It also aims at repositioning the Indian Postal department as a self-sufficient and cost-effective provider of services. Further, since the postal department has already been working as a quasi bank, efforts are on to convert it into a full fledged bank.

Speaking on the sidelines of the postal policy round table organised by FICCI, the Communications Minister, Kapil Sibal confirmed that the Postal Department had applied to the Reserve Bank of India for a banking license and he had written to the Finance Minister to expedite the same. He said that there was need to modernize the postal department so that it could keep up with the changing trends and also attain new heights.

India currently has 1.55 lakh post offices, 95% of which are located in rural areas. The postal department provides a host of savings products, postal life insurance, pension payments and money transfer services through these branches. However, it does not provide credit, which is the most important part of a financial institution. A banking license will help fill that gap, enabling the delivery of modern banking facilities in the remotest areas and therefore help bring about inclusive growth.

The department is also expecting large scale private sector participation in providing value added services and extending the department's product range beyond the current core functions. It was earlier reported that the department had already hired international consultancy firm Accenture to modernise the post offices across the country, which will also help create infrastructure for banking services.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,276.10; about 7 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,269.90, and has touched a high and a low of 5,279.45 and 5,258.70 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,265.75, lower by 4.15 points or 0.08%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.24%, Ranbaxy up by 2.54%, Power Grid up by 1.90%, Dr Reddy up by 1.69% and SAIL up by 1.47%.

On the flip side, RCom down by 3.46%, Hindalco down by 3.04%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.46%, Tata Steel down by 2.10% and Jindal Steel down by 1.96%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite was down 1.69 points or 0.07% to 2,310.87, Hang Seng was down 20.22 points or 0.10% to 20,719.23, Nikkei 225 was down 11.80 points or 0.13% to 8,865.02 and Seoul Composite was down by 16.65 points or 0.84% to 1,967.65.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up 3.58 points or 0.09% to 4,020.49, Straits Times was up 23.94 points or 0.83% to 2,924.98 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 5.98 points or 0.08% to 7,658.44.