Markets open flat; Coal India up 1%

Markets opened flat on Tuesday with bank shares leading the gains on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India is likely to maintain status quo on key rates after the sharp fall in consumer price inflation in December.

At 9:20AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 16 points at 21150 and the 50-share Nifty was up 5 points at 6,277.     

The Consumer Price Inflation for December fell sharply to 9.87% compared with 11.24% in November on account of decline in vegetable prices. Food inflation decreased to 12.16% compared with 14.72 in  November.

Meanwhile, India's currency, debt and money markets will be closed today for a public holiday.

The partially convertible rupee closed on Monday at 61.55/56 per dollar compared with 61.89/90 on Friday.


In Asia, shares came under pressure on Tuesday, with Japanese stocks tumbling more than 2% as the yen hovered near a four-week high against the dollar after last week's surprisingly weak jobs report raised concerns about the U.S. growth outlook.

Tokyo's Nikkei benchmark shed 2.6%, hitting a one-month low as investors there caught up to the fallout from the nonfarm payroll report following Monday's public holiday in Japan.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.3% after gaining 0.8% in the previous session as the disappointing U.S. jobs report added to the case for the Fed to keep rates low for longer.

Overnight, U.S. stocks tumbled on Monday on caution ahead of corporate results, as mounting negative pre-announcements left a lackluster profit growth outlook.

Wall Street has seen a slow start to the year following gangbusters 2013. After the S&P 500's jump of almost 30% last year, its forward price-to-earnings ratio is the highest in nearly seven years and investors are weighing the risk of paying such a high premium for earnings that may see growth stall.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.09%, to 16,258, the S&P 500 lost 1.26%, to 1,819 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.47%, to 4,113.

Metal index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE followed by Bankex and FMCG indices among others.

Coal India was up over 1% after the Competition Appellate Tribuna,l which reviews appeals against the orders of Competition Commission of India (CCI), has imposed a status quo on the fair trade regulator’s earlier judgment directing the state-owned miner Coal India to pay Rs 1,773 crore penalty for alleged abuse of monopoly position.