Market to play it cool

"It doesn't matter if the water is cold or warm if you're going to have to wade through it anyway" - Teilhard de Chardin The weather of course is as cool as one may have experienced. The market has nothing really to warm up to immediately except the results which will start pouring in later this week. The outlook is a flat opening with a narrow range movement anticipated. Asian stocks are moving in and out of positive territory. The Nikkei is slightly lower. Hang Seng is marginally higher. Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Display Co. fell in Seoul after being fined by China for price fixing. The US market had closed in the green on Friday. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will hold pre-Budget talks with heads of banks and other important financial institutions besides a separate meeting with economists. Some stocks in focus would be Firstsource Solutions on account of an open offer. Indraprastha Gas will be another stock to watch out for as the Delhi Government has hiked compressed natural gas (CNG) price. BOARD MEETINGS Globus Spirits, Hanung Toys, Ifb Agro Industries, Rapid Investments, Shrey Chemicals and Nouveau Global Ventures Trends in FII flows: The first week of Jan saw FIIs net inflow of Rs45.20bn ($829mn), according to SEBI data. In 2012, FIIs had made a net investment of $24.4bn in Indian equities. 2010 had seen record inflows of $29 billion. The FIIs were net buyers of Rs11.64bn in the cash segment on Friday, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of Rs8.25bn, as per the provisional figures released by the NSE. The foreign funds were net buyers of Rs16.04bn in the cash segment on Thursday, according to the SEBI figures. Global Data Watch: Vehicle Sales (YoY) (Dec) JPY, Foreign Currency Reserves (Dec) CHF, Halifax House Prices (MoM) (Dec) GBP, Halifax House Prices (3m/YoY) (Dec) GBP, Sentix Investor Confidence (Jan) EUR CB Leading Economic Index (Dec) GBP, Producer Price Index (MoM) (Nov) EUR, Producer Price Index (YoY) (Nov) EUR, Ivey Purchasing Managers Index (Dec) CAD, Ivey Purchasing Managers Index s.a (Dec) CAD AiG Performance of Construction Index (Dec) AUD. Among the other news in the media: The government has allowed Cairn India to further explore its prolific Rajasthan oilfields, which can raise the block’s output to 300,000 barrels per day from current 175,000 bpd, oil minister said. (ET) MAS GMR Aerospace Engineering is in talks with SpiceJet for offering aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul services for the airline’s newly acquired Bombardier Q400 fleet, a senior official of the GMR Group said. (ET) Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which is in the process of acquiring Netherlands-based specialty pharmaceutical company OctoPlus NV for about €27.4m, has so far managed to get nearly 80% shares in its favour. (ET) Infosys is changing course in its India business to focus more on deals from corporations rather than government, which now contributes about 90% to the company’s revenue in its home market. (ET) LIC Housing Finance, promoted by state-run insurance giant LIC, is planning to raise Rs7-10bn through external commercial borrowings, said CEO VK Sharma. (ET) Coal India has achieved 93% of its output target during April-November 2012, according to the nodal Coal Ministry’s statement. This is a 6.4% growth over the corresponding period of the previous year, it said. (BL) Prospects of commencing the Rs40bn L&T port-cum-shipyard at Kattupalli in North Chennai, have brightened following the State Government’s instructions to the company to absorb some more people from the local community. (BL) UCO Bank has sought Rs8bn from the Union Government to boost its capital adequacy ratio and fund its growth needs. According to Executive Director S. Chandrasekharan, the bank recently raised Rs10bn by way of lower tier-II bonds. (BL) Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation announced it has booked 2.25mn tonne per annum natural gas re-gasification capacity offered by Petronet LNG Ltd at its Dahej terminal in Gujarat. (BS) Mahindra 2 Wheelers, part of the Mahindra Group, kicked off the new year with a re-entry into the motorcycle segment by unveiling two indigenously developed bikes. Powered by a 110cc engine, Mahindra 2 Wheelers showcased the all-new Centuro and Pantero bikes. (BS) National Aluminum Company, a navratna firm under Union ministry of mines, has pitched for allowing ‘open access’ norms in power trading in Odisha. (BS) SEBI has proposed cumulative voting for selection of independent directors, disclosure of appointment letters of independent directors to the shareholders and a certification course and training for independent directors. (ET) Led by healthy growth in personal income tax collection, the gross direct tax collection in the nine months till December of the current fiscal increased by 8.01% to Rs4.28trn. (ET) The finance ministry has asked public sector banks to review their exposure to non-core operations like insurance ventures to conserve capital and promote banking operations. (ET) High interest rates and infrastructure bottlenecks dampened India Inc’s business confidence in the October-December quarter. According to CII's quarterly Business Outlook Survey, the Business Confidence Index for Oct-Dec declined to 49.9 from 51.3 in the previous quarter. (ET)