Equity markets trade depressed on concern of higher oil prices

Equity markets have drifted further low as investors booked profits after gains in the previous two sessions amid weakening trend in global equities. Besides this, concerns over higher oil prices and the unrest in Libya spreading to other Middle East countries also cast a shadow over the trading sentiment. With no big trigger from the home front to warrant any strong buying, the mood is quite bearish on the bourses at present and the investor's are mainly eyeing the RBI's monetary policy review on March 17,2011. On the global front, stock markets have largely fallen in Asia after a string of oil facilities were set ablaze in the conflict in Libya, further fuelling fears for the stability of supplies. Meanwhile, US future indices too are trading depressed over oil concerns. Back home on the BSE Sectoral front, bears have taken over the space; however, stocks from Bankex, Metal, Information Technology counters are facing accelerated selling pressure.   But, the broader indices continuing their previous session winning streak have yet not cracked and are showcasing strong spirit in the weak equity market. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have battered down advances in the ratio of 1090:975, while, 88 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,330.93, down by 139.02 points or 0.75%. The index has touched a high of 18,430.84 and a low of 18,261.26 respectively. There were just 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading marginally in the green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices gained 0.05% and 0.09% respectively.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were in red; Bankex down by 1.29%, Metal down by 0.92%, IT down by 0.88%, TECk down by 0.81% and Public Sector Undertaking down 0.59% were the major losers on the index.

Reliance Infra up by 1.54%,Maruti Suzuki up by 0.43%,M&M up by 0.18%, Reliance Communication up by 0.15% and Tata Motors up by 0.11% were the gainers on the Sensex.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.94 %,SBI down by 1.79%, Tata Power down by 1.72%, TCS down by 1.42% and Jindal Steel down by 1.41% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, Infosys Technologies is looking for acquisitions to add companies that specialize in providing healthcare and government services. A team is scanning for such technology companies and is scouting for targets in non English-speaking countries.

The company's team has examined about 150 potential buyouts. Meanwhile, Infosys which is saver of the biggest cash pile in the country's computer services industry, has almost quadrupled its reserves to $3.6 billion in the past five years.

Earlier in 2006, Infosys had invested $115 million to buy Citigroup's stake in Progeon, a back office service provider controlled by Infosys, in the company's biggest acquisition to date.

The S&P CNX is currently trading at 5,486.15, down by 44.85 points or 0.81%.The index has touched a high of 5,516.30 and a low of 5,468.45 respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Capital up by 3.12%, Reliance Infra up by 1.73%, IDFC up by 1.07%, ACC up by 0.83% and SAIL up by 0.80%.

The top losers of the index were ICICI Bank down by 2.15%, Tata Power down by 1.90%, Kotak Bank down by 1.80%, HCL Technologies down by 1.78% and SBI down by 1.69%.

NTPC has moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court's ruling that allowed Ansaldo Caldaie Boilers (ACB) to bid for providing super-critical power equipment to the state-run power major. The company is dissatisfied with the Delhi High Court ruling and hence has approached the Supreme Court.

Delhi High Court had set aside NTPC's notice rejecting the bid of Ansaldo Caldaie Boilers, a subsidiary of Gammon India, for building super-critical power plants and directed it to allow ACB to move to the next stage of bidding on March 1, 2011. NTPC had rejected ACB's bid saying that the minimum criteria stipulated in techno-commercial tender, was not fulfilled.

The power giant's tender had invited manufacturers to supply a package that includes 11 super critical boilers and an equal number of super critical turbines of 660 Mw each. Apart from ACB, there are four bidders for the tender, BHEL, a consortium of L&T Power and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, JV between BGR and Hitachi Power Europe GmbH.

Chennai-based ACB India is a JV between Ansaldo Caldaie, an Italian boiler manufacturer and Gammon India, which holds a 73.4% stake.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down by 1%, Hang Seng declined 0.63%, Jakarta Composite slid 0.52%, KLSE Composite was in red by 0.37%, Nikkei 225 lost 1.34%, Straits Times shed 0.54%, Seoul Composite trimmed 1.12% and Taiwan Weighted shaved off 1.27%.

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