Positive Asian cues

Indian equity benchmarks were strong in trade after witnessing a consolidation in previous four days with a negative bias. About 40 stocks out of 50 on the Nifty were in green - technology ahead of Infosys earnings tomorrow, financial, auto, capital goods, FMCG and power sectors led the 50-share NSE Nifty to 5850 level at 11:40 hours.

Asian markets too recovered - Nikkei, Straits Times and Kospi were up 1-1.5%. Hang Seng and Taiwan went up over 0.5%. Shanghai rose 0.35%.

Fourth quarter earnings season is set to kick off tomorrow with IT bellwether Infosys. Infosys is expected to report a fourth quarter profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 1856 crore, a growth of 4.2% over Rs 1779.8 crore in previous quarter, according to CNBC-TV18 estimates. Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro gained more than 1%; TCS jumped over 2%. For more Read the full story

Oil may climb to $200/bbl

2011 wasn’t a good beginning for the Indian market after many investors shunned it citing problems coming off, not only from sensitive issues like inflation and rising oil prices but also various scams blowing up in the face of the government. Read more

Mop up Rs 12k crore since Mar 22 Foreign Investors

Foreign funds net sold Rs 691 crore of shares on April 11, dragging benchmark indices down by around 1%. This is the first time in 15 sessions, that foreign investors have been net sellers, after having mopped up nearly Rs 12,000 crore of shares since March 22. For calendar 2011 till date, they have net bought close to Rs 3300 crore of shares.

Date	FIIs Purchase/Sales
22-Mar-11	313.3
23-Mar-11	393.2
24-Mar-11	345.5
25-Mar-11	1,517.90
28-Mar-11	481.7
29-Mar-11	1,500.40
30-Mar-11	1,043.40
31-Mar-11	N.A.
4-Apr-11	4,087.30
5-Apr-11	1,562.70
6-Apr-11	716.2
7-Apr-11	383.3
8-Apr-11	356.9
11-Apr-11	*(691.22)
* Provisional figure

 FII flows to emerging markets have turned positive again and it will be critical to see how they pan out going forward. “There are too many pulls and pressures on the indices. I will be very happy if the market doesn’t correct and goes bellow 5700”.

Despite yesterday's sell-off, Indian equity benchmarks outperformed their global peers - the 50-share NSE Nifty and 30-share BSE Sensex gained nearly 8% each while the global markets gained 2-7%.

The market has rallied 10% over the last few sessions despite seeing multiple concerns over Middle East tensions, high commodity and oil prices and rising inflation.

Geo-political tensions in Middle East and North Africa pushed the Brent crude higher upto USD 126.5 a barrel, but that did not stall the rally in equities.

“Oil is at USD 124-125 per barrel and that’s definitely not good for the Indian economy. It brings in some amount of inflation into the economy. The government spending has to start soon to help push the economy ahead.”

Investors to be more cautious as he strongly feels that crude rates will reach another peak post assembly elections and hurt the market sentiment further.

Indian Indices	11-Apr-11	% Change
BSE REALTY	2402.15	18.08
BSE-SMALLCAP	8709.91	12.02
BSE CAPITAL GOODS	13594.91	10.24
BSE IT	6545.1	9.89
BSE-MIDCAP	7123.57	9.72
BSE Auto	9194.67	8.66
BSE POWER	2751.35	8.41
BSE BANKEX	13203.77	8.32
BSE SENSEX	19262.54	7.98
S&P CNX NIFTY	5785.7	7.85
BSE FMCG	3637.98	7.12
BSE Metal	16310.73	6.78
BSE HEALTHCARE	6126.23	5.71
BSE Oil & Gas	9928.18	2.61
Global Indices
Hang Seng	24303.07	7.13
Nikkei	9719.7	5.57
FTSE	6053.44	4.62
Shanghai	3022.75	3.91
CAC	4038.7	3.44
Dow Jones	12381.11	2.86
S&P 500	1324.46	2.01

Asian markets trading lower

At 9:08 am (IST), Asian markets were trading lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.43% or 347.62 points at 23,955.45. Japan's Nikkei shed 1.60% or 155.77 poins at 9,563.93.

Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.89% or 28.11 points at 3,132.33. South Korea's Seoul Composite slipped 1.32% or 27.97 points at 2,094.42. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted plunged 1.92% or 170.20 points at 8,710.07. China's Shanghai Composite was up 0.27% or 8.12 points at 3,030.86.

Market likely to hit by May-end: SAIL FPO

The much-awaited Rs 8,000-crore follow-on public offer of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is set to hit the capital market by the end of next month, a source close to the development said.

“The FPO will hit the market by May-end. This is final,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

However, attempts to contact the SAIL Chairman, Mr C S Verma, went unanswered.

The FPO of SAIL, in which the Government holds a stake of a little over 85%, has failed to meet repeated deadlines since December last year due to unfavourable market conditions and problems with merchant bankers.

The delay in SAIL’s FPO thwarted the achievement of the Government’s divestment target for the previous fiscal.

Compared to the target of Rs 40,000-crore fund generation through disinvestment in state-owned firms, the Government could only raise more than Rs 22,000 crore. It has set a target to raise Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment in state-run firms during the current fiscal as well.

The expected date for submission of a red herring prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) could not be ascertained, but it is likely to be filed within the first fortnight of next month, the source said.