Indian markets trade flat in morning deals ahead of Jan IIP data

Indian equity benchmarks have made a flat start and are hovering near their pre-close mark as market participants opted to remain sideways ahead of IIP data for the month of January, slated to be announced later in the day. Though, there is not much expectation and the industrial production is likely to have grown at 1 per cent as compared to 0.6 per cent registered in the month of December 2012, but any upside can support the markets. Cautiousness also crept in after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based agency said, growth is slowing down in India. In its long-term trend of economic activity, which is put at 100, the Indian economy had a score of 97.2, the lowest level seen in the last five months.

Globally, Asian markets, after a positive opening, entered into the negative terrain as investors opted to book their profit garnered in past few sessions. Though, Japanese markets continued to trade higher for ninth consecutive day, after Bank of Japan’s deputy- governor nominee Kikuo Iwata stated that decisive monetary easing is needed, boosting the morale of Japanese exporters. The US markets extended their gaining momentum in the new week, though there was not much on the economic front and traders preferred to remain on sidelines, but the downside too was capped with some recently announced upbeat economic news.

Back home, on the sectoral front, oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by auto and metal while, software, consumer durables and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading slightly in the green while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,044 shares on the gaining side against 778 shares on the losing side while 73 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,675.81; about 29 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,646.21, and has touched a high and a low of 19,697.84 and 19,639.24 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,649.60, up by 3.39 points or 0.02%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 54.84% stocks advancing against 41.17% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose by 0.16% and 0.39% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 0.63%, Auto up by 0.56%, Metal up by 0.33%, PSU up by 0.23% and Realty up by 0.20% while, IT down by 0.76%, Consumer Durables down by 0.70%, Teck down by 0.68% and Bankex down by 0.07% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.36%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.35%, RIL up by 1.12%, Jindal Steel up by 0.96% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.84%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.18%, TCS  was down by 1.02%, Bajaj Auto was down by 0.96%, Infosys was down by 0.77% and HDFC Bank was down by 0.70% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), in its 189th meeting on March 13, will consider 26 proposals of foreign direct investment (FDI), including Punj Lloyd and Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company. Other FDI proposals that are scheduled to be considered include that of Muthoot Finance (Kerala), Euronet Services India, Asia Net Communication and Srei Infrastructure Finance.

To attract maximum FDI into the country, the government has been liberalizing the foreign investment policy. The government in FY14 Budget has proposed to follow the international practice with regard to defining FDI and foreign institutional investors (FII) to remove the ambiguity in making distinction between the two types of investments. India has allowed FDI in most of the sectors through automatic route, but for certain sensitive sectors, FIPB clearance is required.

For the April-December period of 2012-13, the inflows have declined by about 42 per cent to $16.94 billion. The sectors, which have received large FDI inflows during the nine months of the financial year are services, hotel, tourism, metallurgical, construction and automobiles. India received maximum FDI from Mauritius, followed by Japan, Singapore, the Netherlands and the UK.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,944.60; about 2 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,942.35, and has touched a high and a low of 5,951.00 and 5,935.40 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,941.20, down by 1.15 points or 0.02%. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ACC up by 2.24%, Ambuja Cements up by 2.00%, Ranbaxy up by 1.74%, M&M up by 1.36% and Tata Motors up by 1.26%.

On the flip side, Siemens down by 2.23%, Cairn down by 1.64%, HCL Tech down by 1.44%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.03% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.00%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite declined 17.35 points or 0.75% to 2,293.24, Hang Seng slipped 29.44 points or 0.13% to 23,061.38, KLSE Composite dipped by 1.57 points or 0.09% to 1,656.39, KOSPI Composite dropped 8.84 points or 0.44% to 1,994.51 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 18.09 points or 0.23% to 8,020.63.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 rose 11.05 points or 0.09% to 12,360.10 and Straits Times was up by 16.77 points or 0.51% to 3,309.74.

Jakarta Composite remained shut for the trade today.