Bears take a break

It as been a steady session of trade post Friday's battering and the gyrations winessed through the course of the past week. After plummeting by more than 400 points on Friday and oscillating in a 700-pt range in the week gone by, the markets have been stable since this morning and have actually spurted in noon trades. The Sensex is firmly entrenched above the psychological 18k mark at 18168, higher by 160 points and the Nifty has regained the 5400 mark and is at 5435, up 39 points. The broader markets are not trading in line; the midcap index is at 6730, lower by three points and the smallcap index is at 8291, down 39 points.

Unlike the divergence seen in the recent past, the domestic bourses have toed the global line in the current trading session. The US stocks had risen on Friday, reversing losses and sending the Standard and Poor's 500 Index to the highest level since June 2008, after unemployment rates unexpectedly dropped and more companies beat earnings estimates; the Dow rose 29 points at 12,092 and Nasdaq climbed 15 points at 2,769.30. The Asian markets had a mixed day; the Nikkei and Seoul indices gained around half a percent each, while the Hang Seng index shed about a percent, and the European markets are up ialmost a percent each.

The healthy GDP forecast would have only added to the prevalent stability. The GDP for the 2010/11 fiscal year is estimated to grow at 8.6%, a government statement said, adding that India is likely to move up in global GDP rankings to within the top 10 economies. India's farm output may grow 5.4%, industrial growth should reach 6.2% and the service sector is projected to grow by 11% in the current fiscal ending in March, the government statement showed. India's economy has grown at 8.9% for two consecutive quarters in the current financial year.

The markets would be keenly watching all-party meeting convened by the finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 8 to resolve the parliamentary deadlock on the issue of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam. Any movement in the direction of ensuring a smooth Budget session is likely to have a

"We, as a country, are doing fine and there may be liquidity tightening measures that we will see in short term.  The major concern is inflation and various scams which has dampened the markets. The market is getting impacted because of the foreign institutional investors' (FII) inflows are becoming negative in this calendar year. I do not know that FIIs will be buyers or sellers, but I can see that the lead indicator is economic performance", said Motilal Oswal, chairman and managing director, MOFSL.

Hero Honda has strengthened by 3% at Rs 1581 to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE. ITC has gained by 2.8% at Rs 157 and Jaiprakash Associates has added 2.6% at Rs 85. And index heavyweight RIL has added 1.3% at Rs 932.

Cipla has weakened by 2.3% to Rs 316 to top the losers list on the BSE after net profit declined 19.49% to Rs 232.69 crore (as against Rs 289 crore) on a 11.70% rise in net sales to Rs 1501.36 crore in Q3 December 2010 over Q3 December 2009. Wipro shed 1.89% at Rs 427 and L&T lost 1.3% at Rs 1551.

The market breadth is negative. Out of 2877 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1191 stocks as as against 1590 declines.