Market seen lower in opening trade; food inflation data eyed

The market is likely to see a lower start mirroring subdued Asian equities. The sentiment remains edgy as the French and German leaders failed to deliver a solution to the euro zone debt crisis and restore investor confidence after a global market rout. Trading of S&P CNX Nifty on the Singapore stock exchange indicates a fall of 15.50 points at the opening bell. The government will today, 18 August 2011, unveil data on some wholesale price indices viz. the food price index, the primary articles index and the fuel price index for the year through 6 August 2011. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 407.68 crore on Wednesday, 17 August 2011, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 169.42 crore on that day.




Bargain hunting after recent heavy losses in share prices helped the key benchmark indices edge higher on Wednesday, 17 August 2011. The BSE Sensex jumped 109.86 points or 0.66% to 16,840.80 and the S&P CNX Nifty was up 20.80 points or 0.41% to 5,056.60.

In recent macroeconomic news, the wholesale price index (WPI) for the month of July 2011 came in at 9.22%, lower than 9.44% rise in June 2011. The government also raised May's inflation reading to 9.56% from a provisional 9.06%. Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu on Tuesday, 16 August 2011, said he expects inflation to remain between 9% and 10% until December. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the government will take steps to cool inflation, although he didn't elaborate what these measures might include. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is scheduled to undertake a mid-quarter policy review on 16 September 2011.

Industrial production grew 8.8% in June 2011 from a year earlier, helped by strong growth in manufacturing output, data released by the government on Friday, 12 August 2011, showed. The reading was sharply higher than the upwardly revised 5.95% industrial output growth in May 2011. The June reading also beat market expectations by a wide margin.

Food Minister K.V. Thomas on Wednesday, 17 August 2011, said that the government plans to introduce a food security bill, which promises to give cheap food grains to 70% of the country's population, in the winter session of parliament. Thomas told reporters that the bill won't be introduced in the ongoing session of parliament, as earlier planned, because the "consultation process with state governments and different ministries is still on. "A ministerial panel had cleared the draft law last month.

Most Asian stocks were trading lower on Thursday, 18 August 2011. The key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan fell by between 0.04% to 1.76%. The key benchmark indices Indonesia and Singapore in rose 0.84% and 0.54% respectively.

US stocks ended mixed on Wednesday as investors weighed earnings from some high-profile retailers against signs of rising input costs and continued dissatisfaction over efforts to find a solution to Europe's debt woes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 4.28 points, or 0.04%, at 11410.21. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gained 1.13 points, or 0.09%, to 1193.89, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 11.97 points, or 0.47%, to 2511.48.