Benchmarks trade flat with positive bias in early deals

Indian equity markets, after a subdued opening, are trading flat with a positive bias keeping their head above water as investors went for lower level buying in fundamentally strong stocks. Some amount of support also came in from telecom stocks like Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and MTNL which edged higher after Supreme Court asked the government to immediately explain why it is restricting the sale of airwaves in the upcoming auctions, and not selling all spectrum vacated by the 122 licences whose permits were cancelled earlier this year. Rise in banking stocks too strengthened the bourses as the Finance Ministry hopes that the National Investment Board and new banking licences will soon see the light. However, the gains remain capped as FICCI’s latest quarterly survey on manufacturing has projected subdued growth in key sectors such as automotive, capital goods, metal and chemicals in the third quarter.

Global cues remained unsupportive as the US equity markets fell 1 percent overnight as concerns over the looming fiscal cliff overshadowed a pair of better-than-expected economic reports. The jobless claims fell for the week in a sign the labor market’s slow recovery was gaining traction and US trade deficit narrowed in September but the traders remain concerned after Standard & Poor’s said it now sees a 15-percent chance that the economy will go over the ‘fiscal cliff’ next year. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red at this point of time weighed down by worries over the risk of a recession in the world's largest economy as the United States faces a looming fiscal crisis, while Europe still awaits a bailout for Greece, keeping investor risk appetite subdued.

Back home, power witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and capital goods while, software and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,072 shares on the gaining side against 535 shares on the losing side while 73 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,832.75; about 14 points lower compared to its previous closing of 18,846.26, and has touched a high and a low of 18,886.12 and 18,824.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,871.01, up by 24.75 points or 0.13%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 63.81% stocks advancing against 31.85% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.47% and 0.67% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Power up by 0.87%, Realty up by 0.86%, CG up by 0.67%, FMCG up by 0.49% and PSU up by 0.32% while, IT down by 0.30% and TECk down by 0.21% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.07%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.00%, Jindal Steel up by 0.95%, Hindalco up by 0.92% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.90%.

On the flip side, Infosys was down by 0.94%, Tata Motors was down by 0.81%, ONGC was down by 0.75%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.53% and Sterlite Industries was down by 0.44% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with the recent policy initiatives in FDI in multi brand retail, Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Anand Sharma has affirmed that the arrival of brands like Zara, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Jimmy Choo might bring more flavours to the Indian apparel market, which would provide plenty of job opportunities for the young designers along with the better choice of products.

While speaking in the Convocation of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) at Rae Bareli, he urged the young designers to enrich the traditional Indian textiles, while working in close contact with the traditional artisans. He also pointed that the indigenous carpet designs are likely to reach global markets soon with the foreign intervention.

According to reports, the Swedish furniture maker IKEA has partnered with India's Handicrafts Department for design development and capacity building of Indian handicraftsmen and carpet weavers. With this initiative, nearly 200 exporters would be trained to ensure that they follow the international best practices related to labour laws that prohibit child labour. IKEA has promised to invest about 1.5 billion euro (Rs 10,500 crore) in India to set up 25 stores.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,731.10; about 7 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,738.75, and has touched a high and a low of 5,749.65 and 5,729.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,745.90, higher by 7.15 points or 0.12%. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.16%, Power Grid up by 1.47%, JP Associates up by 1.35%, Reliance Infra up by 1.08% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.05%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.00%, Sesa Goa down by 0.81%, Infosys down by 0.81%, ONGC down by 0.74% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.64%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Hang Seng lost 58.83 points or 0.27% to 21,508.08, Jakarta Composite lost 7.19 points or 0.17% to 4,320.10, KLSE Composite was down by 2.45 points or 0.15% to 1,638.62, Nikkei 225 lost 83.10 points or 0.94% to 8,754.05, Straits Times lost 2.50 points or 0.07% to 3,010.01 and Kospi Composite declined by 13.96 points or 0.73% to 1,900.26

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted has up by 22.06 points or 0.30% to 7,264.58 and Shanghai Composite up by 3.02 points or 0.15% to 2,074.53.