BOR: Market Outlook: Indian markets may have flat to positive opening today on the back of mixed performance on the global cues.

Market Outlook: Indian markets may have flat to positive opening today on the back of mixed performance on the global cues. Being today the first day for new trading hours one has to watch the volume at the beginning of the day @ 9 to tarck the markets momemtum. Nifty has supports at 5130-5160 and resistances are at 5250-5280. Markets are expected to trade in a range. Stock specific action to be in markets as we are near to results season, for the day we like Tata motors & Maruti.

Markets to start trading at 9 am from today: It is not quite the kind of start to the new trading year that most stock market professionals in India would have looked forward to, the two major exchanges — NSE and BSE — have decided to advance market hours by 55 minutes to 9:00 am. The move to advance trade timing will benefit foreign fund managers who track India sitting out of Hong Kong or Singapore, as the trading hours overlap. This will still not lead to foreign fund houses investing more in India, because their capital allocation for individual markets are usually fixed. That is also the case with domestic MFs, except that fund management teams will have to start the day early.

Global events to watch for today:

• ISM Mfg Index
• Construction Spending
• 4-Week Bill Announcement
• 3-6 Month Bill Auction

Global indices Update @ 8:

Dow Jones : 10428 (-120.4)

Nasdaq : 2269 (-22.13)

Nikkei 225 : 10669 (+122.97)

Hang seng : 21900 (+27.81)

SGX CNX Nifty : 5225 (+05.50)

INR / 1 USD : 46.65

On the global counter: Wall St closes out `09 with best gains since 2003 Asian markets trading mixed; Nikkei up, Straits Times down. For the last day US stocks declined, with a late-day sell-off pushing all three major indexes down about 1% as investors sold some of the year's best-performing stocks to lock in some of 2009's substantial gains. For the year Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 23.5% for the year, while the Dow climbed 18.8% and the Nasdaq jumped 43.9% from its close on Dec. 31, 2008.

Stock in action for the day: Tata Motors, NALCO, Sical Logistics, Lloyds Metals, Panacea Biotec, Himadri Chemicals & Godrej Consumer Products

Tata Motors December sales register 105% increase: The country’s largest automaker, Tata Motors Ltd registered 105 per cent growth in sales during the month selling 51,627 units compared to 25,219 vehicles in December 2008. The growth in December 2009 has come over low sales in December 2008, impacted by the downturn in the automobile industry during that period. All other manufacturers including Maruti, Hyundai and Hero Honda reported their best- ever sales in December in line with revival of growth in the auto-industry. Maruti and Hyundai posted a sales growth rate of 36.5% and 42.3% respectively.

NALCO: According to government sources say that Nalco will be split into three companies at an opportune time. They may split Nalco into Nalco Metal, Nalco Power and Nalco International.

Sical Logistics has bagged Rs 163 crore Hindustan Copper multimodal logistics contract.

Lloyds Metals & Engineers said that owing to Lloyds Line Pipes (LLPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, raising additional equity, following which the LLPL is now ceased to be subsidiary of the company.

Panacea Biotec approved the buy-back of its equity shares of Re 1 each, by way of open market purchases through stock exchanges. It approved maximum buy-back price as Rs 189 per share. The maximum number of shares proposed for buy-back as 55,92,000 equity shares for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 105.69 crore. The stock was down 5% at Rs 201 versus the buyback price of Rs 189.

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) has received an order from Hindalco Industries, Orissa, for Pot Shell Fabrication Works for Greenfield Smelter Project at Lapanga, Sambalpur, Orissa. The value of the contract is Rs 108.73 crore.

PE entry to help Himadri fund expansion: Private equity Bain Capital has bought a 15.4% stake in Kolkata-based Himadri Chemicals in a move which will support the chemical company’s plan to triple capacity. The Rs 600-crore deal that includes an open offer to Himadri’s retail shareholders, will part-finance the company’s Rs 1,600-crore expansion plan that will raise its coal tar capacity to 400,000 tonne and forward integrate into other products for use in construction and auto industries

Godrej close to buying Indonesia’s Megasari: Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is close to acquiring Indonesian household products company Megasari in a deal estimated to be worth Rs 1,200-1,400 crore and has placed an “attractive” bid for the global pesticides business of Sara Lee Corp with which it has a joint venture in India. GCPL, the maker of Cinthol soap and Colour Soft hair colour, will fund the Indonesian acquisition through a combination of internal accruals and debt, but the South-East Asian company will be run by its household insecticides joint venture Godrej Sara Lee.