Benchmarks open flat ahead of Bernanke speech

The Indian equity markets have made a flat start as investors cautiously awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Though, the sentiments remained week on concern of global economic recovery. The US markets closed lower on Thursday after a choppy session while, most of the Asian counterparts were trading in the negative terrain at this point of time. Back home, the sentiments remained subdued after RBI said that India's growth could slow further because of the global recession and the government may also miss its budget deficit targets. On the sectoral front, auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by consumer healthcare and capital goods while, metal, realty and power remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. Meanwhile, Metals lost sheen for the second consecutive day on worries that the global economic slowdown may crimp demand. Stocks like Jindal Steel fell 3.6%, JSW Steel declined 2.8%, Sesa Goa was off 2% and SAIL declined 1.8%. However, Tree House Education and Accessories got good response from the traders and the stock was trading with a gain of over 8%. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 983 shares on the gaining side against 718 shares on the losing side while 71 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,155.55; about 9 points higher compared to its previous closing of 16,146.33 and has touched a high and a low of 16,209.51 and 16,113.82 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 16,190.49, up by 44.16 points or 0.27%. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 55.47% stocks advancing against 40.52% declines. The broader indices were trading flat; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05% while, Small cap index rose by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 0.91%, HC up by 0.57%, CG up by 0.57%, TECk up by 0.51% and IT was up by 0.42%. While, Metal down by 0.84%, Realty down by 0.66%, Power down by 0.39%, Bankex down by 0.19% and Oil and Gas down by 0.05% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.81%, M&M up by 1.52%, Coal India up by 1.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.32% and BHEL was up by 1.16%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.93%, Tata Power was down by 2.09%, Hindalco was down by 1.43%, DLF was down by 1.13% and Jaiprakash Associates was down by 1.09% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with the launch of Authorized Economic Operator (AEO), a pilot programme to connect customs under an initiative to network customs departments across countries, inspection-free trade could soon become a reality with India, Belgium and South Africa. As a first step, India is rolling out the system - AEO - under which traders, logistics providers, and custom agents sporting secure trader tag would be able to move their goods speedily through customs in countries with similar facility.

One of the salient features of the AEO programme is that any economic operator such as importer, exporter, logistics provider, Customs House Agent can apply for authorization subject to some criteria.

Central Board of Excise and Customs' chairman SD Mazumdar said, trade facilitation is high on government's agenda and the AEO programme is one big step in this direction. With AEO system, the focus will now be on globally networked customs. Networking of customs with Belgium and South Africa will give Indian industry easier access to Europe and the African continent. On the contrary, talks are on for a mutual recognition agreement with the US, Japan, South Korea and China, who already have such a system in place.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has already given his nod to the pilot scheme that will serve the twin objective of improving facilitation and securing trade lines. The project is expected to start by 2012. The three countries had inclined for a globally networked customs programme at the World Customs Organization. Such a network helps exchange of information on valuation of goods, rules of origin and intellectual property rights on real-time basis, making movement of goods faster and more secure. The AEO certification acts like a green card allowing for processing of trade consignments without inspection.

AEO status will also make sure a low risk score, that may be incorporated into customs 'risk management system' used to determine the frequency of customs physical and documentary checks. The benefits may also include simplified customs procedure and declarations. On this CBEC said, 'the objective of the AEO programme is to provide businesses with an internationally recognized quality mark that will indicate their secure role in the international supply chain and that their customs procedures are efficient and compliant.'

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,839.25; flat compared to its previous closing of 4,839.60, and has touched a high and a low of 4,861.40 and 4,829.55 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,853.60, higher by 14.00 points or 0.29%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.98%, BHEL up by 1.36%, M&M up by 1.29%, HDFC up by 1.28% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.28%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.89%, Sesa Goa down by 2.00%, Tata Power down by 1.99%, Power Grid down by 1.81% and Reliance Capital down by 1.44%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian counterparts were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 20.54 points or 0.79% to 2,594.72, Hang Seng was down 42.41 points or 0.21% to 19,710.07, Jakarta Composite was down 38.95 points or 1.01% to 3,805.43, KLSE Composite was down 18.19 points or 1.24% to 1,446.55, Nikkei 225 was down 7.88 points or 0.09% to 8,764.48 and Straits Times was down by 21.96 points or 0.79% to 2,743.78.

On the flip side, Seoul Composite was up 1.30 points or 0.07% to 1,765.88 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 30.27 points or 0.41% to 7,441.14. 

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