Nifty hovers around 8100, Sensex flat; Infosys, HUL gainers

Moneycontrol Bureau

9:55 am Buzzing: Shares of Dena Bank were up 1.5 percent intraday as it is planning to raise funds.The state-owned bank is looking to raise Rs 1,000 crore from bonds to fund its growth plans.

The bank is planning to raise Basel-III compliant Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds for an amount of Rs 1,000 crore, through private placement, Dena Bank said in a statement.

Under the Basel-III norms, AT-1 bonds come with loss absorbency features, which means in case of stress, banks can write off such investments or convert them into common equity if approved by the RBI.

9:35 am FII view: Arvind Sanger of Geosphere Capital feels the Nifty easily has room to slide another 5-7 percent because of adverse Nifty cues. He sees elections in Greece, a likely exit of that country from the European Union and concerns over a possible rate hike in the US as the major factors weighing down global markets in the short term.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Sanger says a failure on the part of the European Central Bank to deliver on Quantitive Easing (QE) and a possible victory for the opposition part in Greece could undermine sentiment further.

He says the market will be closely watching the minutes of the last Fed meeting, to be released on Thursday. Sanger sees the Nifty slipping below 8000, and says he will use the opportunity to selectively buy stocks he is bullish on.

9:22 pm Market check: The Sensex is up 16.67 points at 27004.13 and the Nifty is up 6.65 points at 8134.00. About 808 shares have advanced, 403 shares declined, and 430 shares are unchanged.

HUL is up 2 percent, Coal India, TCS, Sesa Sterlite and Reliance are top gainers in the Sensex. BHEL is down 1.5 percent.

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After the carnage seen on Tuesday, the market has opened with marginal loss today. The Sensex is down 30.23 points at 26957.23 and the Nifty is down 8.70 points at 8118.65. About 355 shares have advanced, 217 shares declined, and 416 shares are unchanged.

NTPC, Sesa Sterlite, TCS, SBI and Infosys are top gainers in the Sensex. Tata Motors, GAIL, L&T, BHEL and Tata Power are among the major losers.

The Indian rupee opened marginally higher at 63.51 per dollar against previous close of 63.57.

The euro slips to a nine-year low against the dollar early as investors brace for Eurozone inflation data. The data due later in the day is expected to show consumer prices in the euro zone fell in December year on year, the first such drop since 2009.

Himanshu Arora of Religare Commodities said, "USD-INT pair is expected to trade higher today amid consistent strength in dollar against basket of currencies along with unrelenting slide in oil prices and ongoing political uncertainty in Greece."

"UK Services PMI witnessed its largest plunge in more than three years in December. This may also contribute towards weakness in rupee against the dollar. USDINR may remain in 63.40-63.76 range," he added.

In the US, stocks recovered a portion of their losses but still closed lower. The S&P 500 closed above 2,000 after falling below the level for the first time in nearly four weeks. The CBOE volatility index climbed 6 percent to 21.12. Meanwhile the 10-year treasury yield fell 9 basis points to 1.94 percent.

Meanwhile, falling prices of crude oil put pressure on European markets with commodities continuing to be a main driver of global markets. In the UK, Markit's PMI index for just the services sector hit a 19-month low and suffered its biggest decline in more than three years.

In commodities, Nymex crude futures held little changed near 5.5-year lows amid continued worries over a supply glut. Brent too traded around USD 50 per barrel.From precious metals space, gold jumped more than 1 percent to a three-week high, extending gains on safe-haven buying as stock markets slid.