Benchmarks trade flat; investors eying food inflation data

The Indian equity markets have made a flat start as sentiments remained cautious on concerns over a slowdown in world economy while, traders are eying for food inflation data on domestic front which is scheduled to be released in later part of the day's trade. The US markets continued their decline for yet another day on Wednesday on getting more disappointing news from the economy front while; most of the Asian counterparts were trading in the negative terrain at this point of time. Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and power while, fast moving consumer goods and technology remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices witnessed some traction and were outperforming benchmarks. Meanwhile, the PSU oil marketing companies viz., BPCL, HPCL and IOC all were trading with a cut in the range of 1.50-2.50 percent in the trade as crude prices ended higher overnight as OPEC members failed to agree on an output hike. The market breadth has made a positive start; there were 1092 shares on the gaining side against 573 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,394.57; flat compared to its previous closing of 18,394.29, and has touched a high and a low of 18,448.41 and 18,391.20 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,427.79, up by 33.50 points or 0.18%. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 62.87% stocks advancing against 32.99% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.39% and 0.33% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.59%, Realty up by 0.50%, Power up by 0.46%, Bankex up by 0.35% and CG was up by 0.32%. While, FMCG down by 0.09% and TECk down by 0.01% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.49%, BHEL up by 0.80%, Hero Honda up by 0.75%, RIL up by 0.71% and TCS was up by 0.64%.

On the flip side, RCom down by 1.33%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.11%, Reliance Infra down by 0.90%, Cipla down by 0.45% and Tata Motors down by 0.43% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India ranks 3rd in production of coal, however, it is unable to satisfy the growing requirement of core and non-core companies which has widened the demand-supply gap and compelled the ministry to re-shape the three years old National Coal Distribution Policy and if things goes as per Coal Ministry wishes, then soon a new distribution policy would be in place to serve the comprehensive coal linkage needs of core and non-core sectors by introducing adequate flexibility in coal supply to meet the growing demands of these sectors and promote energy security.

India imports coal from Australia but still the need of the public and private sector companies remain un-fulfilled. The Power Ministry has announced 12 companies that will receive coal for their newly-commissioned power projects with combined capacity of 12,200 MW - NTPC, Reliance Power and Lanco Infratech are amongst them.

"Due to ever-growing demand of the mineral from the power sector, it has virtually become impossible to provide additional coal to other sectors. Due to the negative balance of coal, the Standing Committee on Linkage for steel and cement could not be convened for the past three years" said coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal. The ministry, soon, will be introducing new policy to serve the companies growing requirements with flexibility and promote energy security. It also aims to amend the term from FSA and bring down the 90% coal supply to 50%. This move will be a matter of concern for the state-owned power producers, however, it will help their counterparts in private sector.

As per current National Coal Distribution Policy, the 100% requirement of defence and railway sector to be met at a notified price by coal companies thereby meeting 75 per cent of the quantity of normative requirements of other linked consumers through Fuel Supply Agreements (FSAs). The new policy will set a uniform coal price for captive and independent power plants in the country. Meanwhile a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Coal is likely to meet for the third time on Thursday to try and resolve issues hurting the production of coal in the country amid an ever-widening demand and supply gap, which is expected to reach 137 million tonnes in 2011-12.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,523.55; about 3 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,526.85, and has touched a high and a low of 5,538.60 and 5,520.30 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,531.05, up by 4.20 points or 0.08%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were NTPC up by 1.20%, Hero Honda up by 1.01%, Axis Bank up by 1.00%, BHEL up by 0.93% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.83%.

BPCL down by 1.91%, RCom down by 1.38%, HCL Tech down by 1.30%, Grasim by 1.04% and Reliance Capital was down by 1.01%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 17.56 points or 0.64% to 2,732.73, Hang Seng was down 236.50 points or 1.04% to 22,425.13, Jakarta Composite was down 16.04 points or 0.42% to 3,809.78, Nikkei 225 was down 41.83 points or 0.44% to 9,407.63, Seoul Composite was down 15.51 points or 0.74% to 2,067.84 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.62 points or 0.02% to 9,005.91.

On the flip side, Straits Times was up 0.19 points or 0.01% to 3,103.17 and KLSE Composite was up 1.36 points or 0.09% to 1,553.15 

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