Relax and be flexible

"Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach." - Tom Robbins

There is no choice but to relax and wait for some clear trend. The indices seem to have lost their winning ways in recent times. The truncated week is only adding to the lack of interest. On Monday, sentiment was dampened to an extent after industrial growth slowed down to 3.6% in February compared with 15.1%expansion in same month last year. Poor performance by manufacturing and mining were the culprits here.



Another weak start is in store for the day. Global cues are not encouraging at all. The Hang Seng Index is down for the third day. The Nikkei is little changed. Crude oil for May delivery fell on Tuesday by 3.3% to $106.25 a barrel in New York, the lowest settlement since March 30. It has weakened further to $105.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

US indices closed lower following a sell-off in energy stocks. Sentiment was further hurt after Japanese officials raised the threat level at the Fukushima nuclear plant to the same as the 1986 incident at Chernobyl.

The dollar rose against the British pound, but fell against the euro and the Japanese yen. Gold futures for June delivery fell $14.50 to settle at $1,453.60 an ounce.

In other news in the media: Coal India Ltd has been conferred the coveted Maharatna status, giving company autonomy for taking investment decisions. Similar is the case with Neyveli Lignite Ltd, which has also been awarded Navratna status.

Oil ministry has sought security clearance from the home ministry for UK’s BP to buy 30% stake in most of RIL oil and gas blocks, including KG-D6 fields.

SAIL has obtained environmental clearance for the McLellan Iron Ore Mining Project, exclusively for Budhaburu lease.