Morning trade weak

The key benchmark indices edged lower tracking weak Asian markets. The BSE 30-share Sensex was down 84.26 points or 0.51%. Despite the broad market fall, the market breadth was positive.

Metal stocks declined as metal prices fell on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday, 3 February 2010. However, cement pivotals ACC and Ambuja Cement gained ahead of their Q4 December 2009 earnings later in the day

The government will today unveil data on some wholesale price indices for the year through 23 January 2010 viz. the food price index, the primary articles index and the fuel price index.

Meanwhile Pronab Sen, the country's chief statistician, said on Wednesday the government should wait till May to roll back stimulus, as the strength of the demand recovery visible in available data may not be for real, pulling the finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, away from a policy direction which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) desires.

The advance estimates on economic growth for the current fiscal ending March 2010 will be released on Monday. It will be based on the provisional data for the first half of the year and partial data for third quarter and no data on the fourth quarter, which contributes the highest to the annual Gross Domestic Product.

Meanwhile, non-banking finance companies (NBFC) and housing finance companies (HFC) can no longer resort to short-term foreign currency borrowings. Citing prevailing macroeconomic conditions and improvements in domestic credit and liquidity conditions, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has withdrawn the borrowing facility with immediate effect. The latest move by the RBI is seen as part of its efforts to gradually reverse its soft money policy.

In October-November 2008, the RBI had, as a temporary measure, allowed systemically important non-deposit taking NBFCs and HFCs to raise short-term foreign currency borrowings not exceeding 50% of their net-owned funds or $10 million, whichever was higher, for refinancing their short-term liabilities.

Meanwhile Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday reportedly said the government may put off divestment in power generation company Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVNL) to the next fiscal.

Asian shares declined today after Australian retail sales unexpectedly fell in December and commodity prices declined. The key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore were down by between 0.11% to 1.08%. However, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted index rose 0.10%.

US markets snapped a two-day winning streak on Wednesday, 3 February 2010, after tepid reports on employment and the services sector. The key indices ended on a mixed note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26.30 points or 0.26% to 10,270.55, the S&P 500 index slipped 6.04 points or 0.55% to 1,097.28. However the Nasdaq Composite rose marginally by 0.85 points to 2,190.91

In US economic news, the ISM Non-Manufacturing index rose to 50.5 in January from 49.8 in December, but fell short of expectations. On the jobs front, ADP reported that 22,000 jobs were lost from private payrolls in January.

Trading in US index futures indicated a flat opening of US markets on Thursday, 4 February 2010.

Closer home, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has decided to hold a special trading session on Saturday, 6 February 2010, as the exchange is testing upgraded trading systems. Trading will begin at 11:00 IST and end at 12:30 IST.

At 09:15 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 84.26 points or 0.51% to 16,411.79. The index fell 84.93 points at the day's low of 16,411.12 in early trade. The Sensex rose 12.17 points at the day's high of 16,508.22 in early trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty was down 27.30 points or 0.55% to 4904.55

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 722 shares advanced as compared with 573 that declined. A total of 41 shares remained unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 498 crore by 09:25 IST

Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 27 declined while only 3 of them managed gains. HDFC (down 1.79%), Jaiprakash Associates (down 1.42%), and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.06%), edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Metal stocks declined after LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, lost 2.53% on Wednesday, 3 February 2010.

India's largest private sector steel maker by sales Tata Steel fell 1.90% to Rs 589 and was the top loser from the Sensex pack.

Sterlite Industries (down 1.81%), Hindalco Industries (down 1.73%), National Aluminium Company (down 0.72%), Sesa Goa (down 1.17%), and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.82%), edged lower

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was down 0.10% to Rs 1033.50. The company's net profit rose 15.77% to Rs 4008 crore on 89.77% surge in total income to Rs 57364 crore in Q3 December 2009 over Q3 December 2008. RIL said the results had been reworked and restated to include figures from Reliance Petroleum, which it absorbed last year. The company announced the Q3 result during market hours on 22 January 2010.

India's largest power utility firm by sales NTPC fell 0.31%. The company's large follow-on public offer (FPO) saw good response on Wednesday, 3 February 2010. The issue was subscribed 0.77 times on day one. The institutional segment was oversubscribed on day one following heavy bidding from domestic institutional investors (DIIs). DIIs excluding mutual funds, put in bids for 31.15 crore shares compared to 20.4 crore shares reserved for the qualified institutional buyers (QIB) segment as a whole. Foreign funds put in bids for 45.01 lakh shares.

Most bids were at Rs 209 per share. The government has fixed the benchmark price for the proposed divestment of government stake at Rs 201 per share.

Cement pivotals ACC (up 0.58%), and Ambuja Cement (up 0.29%), gained ahead of their Q4 December 2009 earnings today, 4 February 2010.

India's largest oil exploration firm by sales Oil & Natural Gas Corporation gained 1.78% to Rs 1153.35 and was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. The stock rose on hopes on lower subsidy burden after a report from an expert group headed by Kirit Parikh on Tuesday suggested freeing petrol and diesel prices as well as raising LPG rates by Rs 100 a cylinder and kerosene prices by Rs 6 per litre. The Parikh committee's suggestions, submitted to petroleum minister Murli Deora, would see a hike of Rs 3 per litre in petrol and Rs 3-4 per litre in diesel if implemented.

via BL