Volatility ruled the day in Indian markets on the back of weak global cues

Indian markets remained highly volatile during the day following weak global cues. However, a positive opening at European markets on the possible easing of European debt worries helped Indian markets to recover.

The Sensex was up 20 points from Saturday’s close, ending the day at 15,936 while the Nifty closed at 4,760, up 3 points.

We expect the market to move sideways tomorrow. However, from here on, for the market to trigger a short rally, it should cross 16,000.

At 12:00 hrs IST, the Sensex was trading at 15,691, down 225 points from the previous day’s close. However at 14:00 hrs IST, the Sensex was up 34 points trading at 15,949.

At the end of the day, Reliance Industries remained flat on reports that the company had submitted a $2-billion expression of interest for Value Creation Inc, a Canada-based private firm which holds assets in oil sands.

Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 1% after winning a contract worth Rs1,016 crore to build a 1,200MW hydropower plant in Bhutan.

Nagarjuna Construction Company has secured five orders aggregating Rs583 crore. The stock was down 1%.

Lupin has received the US Food and Drug Administration’s final approval for its Amlodipine/Benazepril capsules. The stock was down 2%.

Madhucon Projects rose 3% after the company bagged a 75-MW hydropower project from Uttarakhand Jal Vidvut Nigam.

Sadbhav Engineering Ltd has been awarded a project worth Rs136.83 crore by Northern Coalfield (a subsidiary of Coal India). The stock declined 1%.

Areva T&D India remained flat on reports that the company has been awarded two contracts for extra-high voltage turnkey projects at the Moga (Punjab) and Bhiwani (Haryana) plants of Power Grid Corporation of India.

As per reports, the government predicted that its economic growth for the fiscal year ending March 2010 would stand at 7.2%, as against 6.7% achieved in the previous fiscal, raising fears that the government may start to unwind its fiscal stimulus in the forthcoming budget. The advance estimates of the country's gross domestic product released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) today forecast a growth of 9.9% in services and 8.9% in manufacturing, the highest among the eight broader economic activities. Mining & quarrying comes next with an 8.7% expansion followed by 8.3% for trade, hotels, transport and communications, and 8.2% each for energy &water, and social & community services.

The government will announce industrial output data for the month of December 2009 on Friday, 12 February 2010. Inflation numbers for the week ended 30 January 2010 will be out on Thursday.

On Friday, 12 February 2010, stock markets will remain closed on account of Mahashivratri.

During the day, Asia’s key benchmark indices in China, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and South Korea were down by between 0.14%-1.72%. However, indices in Taiwan and Singapore rose 0.04% and 0.37% respectively.

On Friday, 5 February 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 10 points while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 3 points and 16 points respectively.

According to EPFR Global, that tracks foreign inflows, emerging market equity funds lost $1.60 billion in weekly withdrawals, the biggest outflows in 24 weeks. The report further added that investors pulled out almost $1 billion from global emerging market stock funds in the week ended 3 February 2010, the most in more than a year.