Sensex steady; oil stocks up on falling crude price

The Indian equity markets opened steady with a positive bias as the Sensex opened at18,519.16, up 0.26% and the Nifty opening at 5638.30, up 0.13% mainly tracking the Asian shares due to lack of domestic triggers.

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders prepared for budget and tax talks on Friday aimed at preventing the US economy from falling back into recession, a top Republican vowed to overhaul the US tax code next year.

Obama and Congressional leaders begin budget talks on Friday, amid fears the United States will stumble back into recession if no deal is reached to avoid some of the $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes due to start taking effect in January.

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[caption id=“attachment_525810” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Asian shares steadied on Friday after falling nearly 2 percent this week. Reuters[/caption]

Asian shares steadied on Friday after falling nearly 2 percent this week amid concerns about the looming US “fiscal cliff”, while Japanese stocks rallied for a second day on expectations of further monetary policy easing after an election next month.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday said the finance ministry has urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to start the work towards issuing the final guidelines for new banking licences and receiving applications from interested entities.

Stocks in news

Public sector banks including Indian Overseas Bank (1.26 percent), Bank of Maharashtra (1.88 percent) and Central Bank of India (1.79 percent) were trading higher after FM’s announcement yesterday of capital infusion into PSU banks.

Oil companies including Indian Oil Corporation (0.52 percent), HPCL (0.62 percent) were trading higher due to falling crude price. Bharat Petroleumwas the exception which was trading 0.41 percent lower.

Kingfisher Airlines opened 5 percent lower after the airline has sought more time to submit revival plan to DGCA.

IT stocks still remained in the red with Infosys opening 1.92 percent and Tata Consultancy Services 0.12 percent over US spending cut announcement.