Nifty reclaims 6300, Sensex up 141 points; TCS soars 5.5%

The market recouped some of Friday's losses in Monday trade with the 30-share BSE benchmark rising more than 100 points supported by technology and banks stocks.

The Sensex rose 141.43 points to 21,205.05 while the Nifty managed to close above the 6,300 level, at 6,303.95, up 42.30 points over previous value. The BSE Midcap index gained 1 percent and Smallcap climbed 0.8 percent.

Experts remain bullish on the market for long term and expect 23,500-24,000 in 2014.

Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura sees market returns of 17 percent, but advises staying cautious of potential post-poll volatility.

He expects the market's macro ecosystem this year to improve on both the inflation and rates fronts.

The rally was largely led by technology stocks with the BSE IT index rising nearly 3 percent. TCS was the biggest gainer, rising 5.5 percent upmove on short covering as well as value buying.

Wipro , which added 8 lakh shares in open interest, gained nearly 4 percent to touch close to 14-yearyears high of Rs 573.3 post third quarter earnings. Software services exporter expects IT services revenue in range of USD 1,712-1,745 million in Q4, a growth 2-4 percent over Q3.

Infosys continued to touch fresh record high since the announcement of results on January 10. It closed at new life-high of Rs 3,749.90, up 0.59 percent.

Country's largest lender State Bank of India climbed over a percent followed by ICICI Bank , Axis Bank and HDFC Bank with 0.2-0.9 percent upmove.

Sesa Sterlite gained 2.5 percent and Hindustan Zinc surged 4 percent as sources said Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) may take up Hindustan Zinc residual stake sale today,

Shares of ITC , Tata Motors , Mahindra and Mahindra and BHEL were up 1-1.7 percent.

However, Reliance Industries fell 1.7 percent after third quarter earnings. HDFC, Hindustan Unilever , Sun Pharma , Bharti Airtel , Coal India , Tata Steel and Tata Power declined between 0.6-1 percent.

In the broader space, shares of Kajaria Ceramics and Dewan Housing rallied more than 3 percent after December quarter earnings while Nucleus Software was locked at 20 percent upper circuit as its third quarter net profit more than doubled sequentially to Rs 23.4 crore.

Federal Bank climbed 4 percent as sources said CCEA will consider hike in foreign investment limit in the bank.

MCX -SX commenced interest rate futures trading today, which are cash-settled. MCX surged 11 percent.

Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores rose 11 percent as the company resumed mining operations at its Karnataka plant.

Reliance MediaWorks jumped 19 percent after the board approved its delisting plan while IVRCL rose 2 percent on getting orders worth Rs 550.6 crore.

03:50 am Big relief:
The Maharashtra government on Monday announced a 20 percent power cut for industries and residential consumers.

The move comes on the heels of the Delhi government's recent move to provide a 50 percent subsidy to power consumers. Recently, Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam had raised a demand for a reduction in the power tariff.

03:40 pm Market closing:
After a volatile session, the market ended the day on a strong note. The Sensex ended up 141.43 points at 21205.05, and the Nifty closed at 6303.95, up 42.30 points. About 1383 shares have advanced, 1209 shares declined, and 245 shares are unchanged.

IT stocks kept the market busy with TCS gaining 5.5 percent while Wipro was up 4 percent. Sesa Sterlite, ITC and Tata Motors were other gainers in the Sensex. Reliance, Coal India, Tata Power, Sun Power and Bharti was major laggards in the Sensex.

03:30 pm Outlook:
Weak global liquidity conditions, combined with appetite from sovereign funds and growth focused emerging-market funds may fuel investment flows into Indian equites this year, foreign brokerage RBS said.

"We see still loose global liquidity conditions, combined with appetite from sovereign funds and growth focused emerging-market funds fuelling investment flows into the equity markets," RBS said in India Investment Outlook 2014.

The brokerage said it has high hopes for recovery and reforms following the general elections. "We think corporate India will embark on a capital expenditure drive if changes in the political environment lead to more corporate-friendly policies post-elections. To kickstart investment-led growth, favourable government policy is needed."

03:20 pm Stock in news:
State-owned LIC has cut its stake in Biocon to a little over 3 percent by selling more than two percent stake for over Rs 162 crore in the biotechnology major.

The country's largest insurer offloaded 40,31,002 shares, constituting 2.01 per cent, for Rs 162.58 crore in Biocon through open market transaction, the company said in a filing to the BSE.

LIC's stake in Biocon has come down to 3.01 per cent from 5.02 per cent earlier after the offloading of shares, the biotechnology firm said.

03:10 pm Buzzing: Shares of Reliance MediaWorks shares jumped 19.9 percent after the company said late on Friday that its board will consider delisting of shares at a meeting later in the day.

"The board of directors has granted its approval to the Proposed Delisting Offer and intends to seek the approval of shareholders of the Company through postal ballot in terms of the SEBI delisting regulations," it said.

The promoters hold 73.30 percent stake in the company and market participants say the delisting would be at a "good" premium from the current market price.

02:59pm TTK Prestige talks to CNBC-TV18
TTK Prestige chairman TT Jagannathan has attributed the weak financial performance for the December quarter partly to high base effect.

The kitchen appliance major's quarterly net profit declined 33 percent year-on-year, revenues fell 15 percent and operating margins too were under pressure.

He said a relaxation in the cap on cooking gas cylinders will be marginally negative for the company as it negatively impacts sales of the company's products.

On the positive side, Jagannathan said that the company's market share has increased across the board. But the company is not thinking of raising prices because of the increase in market share, Jagannathan said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Sales of induction cook tops fell sharply, and the company is not looking to cut down advertising and marketing spends despite cost pressures, Jagannathan said.

02:53pm Vakrangee, Kajaria Ceramics on buyers' radar
Vakrangee Software rose 1 percent as its Q3 net profit jumped to Rs 51.1 crore from Rs 43.8 crore and revenues climbed to Rs 489.2 crore from Rs 426.4 crore sequentially.

Kajaria Ceramics' third quarter consolidated net profit increased to Rs 29.4 crore from Rs 25 crore and revenues rose to Rs 440 crore from Rs 417.3 crore year-on-year.

02:43pm UltraTech Cement in focus
UltraTech Cement met street expectations with the third quarter (October-December) net profit falling 38.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 370 crore dented by lower selling prices due to the subdued demand.

Net sales declined 1.5 percent to Rs 4,786 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 4,857.4 crore in a year ago period.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected Aditya Birla group-owned cement company to report net profit of Rs 368 crore on revenue of Rs 4,810 crore.

UltraTech believes the outlook continues to remain challenging. "Demand growth in the long term is likely to be around 8 percent. The key demand drivers will continue to be housing and infrastructure spends," it said in its filing.

02:33pm The market maintained positive momentum in last hour of trade with the equity benchmarks rising 0.5 percent supported by technology and bank stocks.

The Sensex climbed 98.84 points to 21,162.46, and the Nifty rose 29.60 points to 6,291.25. About 1265 shares have advanced, 1208 shares declined, and 254 shares are unchanged.

TCS topped the buying list, surging 5 percent followed by Wipro with 3.5 percent upmove. Fund houses seem to be buying these stocks as companies indicated that the next financial year 2014-15 will be better than FY14.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India , ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank and Axis Bank gained between 0.3-0.6 percent.

Index heavyweight ITC jumped 1.6 percent whereas Reliance Industries fell 1.8 percent that capped the market's gains.

1:50 pm Market news: Sebi has been asked by its Appellate Authority to disclose details through RTI on process related to grant of recognition to MCX Stock Exchange, as all such information may not be confidential any more.

Hearing an appeal against the market regulator's denial of information sought through RTI (Right to Information) Act, the Appellate Authority has ruled the process relating to grant of recognition of MCX-SX in 2008 has been completed.

"In view of the same, I note that the decision-making process that contributed towards such grant of recognition cannot be argued as totally exempt from disclosure under the provisions of the RTI Act, though a part of it may qualify as such," the Appellate Authority said in its order.

1:40 pm Results: UltraTech Cement met street expectations with the third quarter (October-December) net profit falling 38.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 370 crore dented by lower selling prices due to the subdued demand.

Net sales declined 1.5 percent to Rs 4,786 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 4,857.4 crore in a year ago period. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected Aditya Birla group-owned cement company to report net profit of Rs 368 crore on revenue of Rs 4,810 crore.

1:30 pm Fat gain!: Wipro is nearing 14-year high, up 4.5 percent intraday on the BSE. Investors are lapping up the stock as its December quarter earnings met street expectations. Its IT services revenues grew 2.6 percent sequentially to Rs 10,327 crore. Consolidated profit after tax of the company climbed 4.27 percent sequentially to Rs 2,014.7 crore and revenues grew 3 percent to Rs 11,327.4 crore for the quarter ended December 2013.

In dollar terms, IT services revenue rose 2.9 percent quarter-on-quarter (6.4 percent on yearly basis) to USD 1,678.4 million that was in-line with company's guidance (USD 1660-1690 million) and analysts' forecast (USD 1677 million).

The market is flat with some support from technology stocks. The Sensex is up 52.90 points at 21116.52, and the Nifty is up 14.85 points at 6276.50. About 1196 shares have advanced, 1151 shares declined, and 252 shares are unchanged.

TCS , Wipro, Hindalco , M&M and Tata Motors are top gainers in the Sensex. Reliance , Tata Steel , HUL , Tata Power and Sesa Sterlite are top losers. Oil marketing companies' slip as the cabinet may take a decision today to hike cap on subsidised LPG cylinders from 9 to 12 a year. IOC tells CNBC-TV18 that there will be an under-recovery hit of Rs 5,700 cr on LPG cap hike.

Hindustan Zinc is up over 3 percent ahead of the CCEA meet. The Cabinet Committe of Economic Affairs is likely to take up HZL residual stake sale today which could fetch the government Rs 20,000 crore.

12:55pm Unichem Labs talks to CNBC-TV18
Growth rate for Unichem Labs has jumped in the second half of FY2014, the firm's VP Finance Rakesh Parikh said. The vice president spoke with CNBC-TV18 after the firm declared its quarterly earnings.

Net profit for the drugmaker stood at Rs 32 crore versus Rs 36.21 crore in the September quarter and Rs 30.3 crore in the year-ago quarter. Revenue clocked Rs 265 crore, versus Rs 266.19 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 231 crore year-on-year.

Secondary sales for the firm (sales made by distributors to chemists) rose 12.4 percent in the quarter, compared to 5 percent for the industry, Parikh said.

''Our US business is up 35 percent in dollar terms for the nine months of FY14. International formulations business has been witnessing some traction,'' he said.

Talking about the impact of the new drug pricing policy, under which the government has put selected drugs under a fixed price regime, the vice president said it could shave 2.5 percent off the firm's revenues. ''The impact is expected to be resolved over the next few quarters.''

The company also sold its SEZ land to drugmaker Mylan during the quarter, which showed up as exceptional item.

12:48pm Ultratech Cement Q3 numbers in-line
Profit after tax of the cement maker fell over 38 percent year-on-year to Rs 368 crore, dented by poor operational performance and higher depreciation.

Sales declined 1.5 percent to Rs 4,786 crore due to weak demand and prices.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected net profit of Rs 370 crore on net sales of Rs 4,810 crore for the quarter.

12:38pm Reliance MediaWorks up 17.5% on delisting buzz
The board of directors of the company on January 20 has considered the proposal made by Reliance Land Private Limited and Reliance Capital Limited to make a voluntary delisting offer to all the public shareholders of the company.

The board has granted its approval to the proposed delisting offer and intends to seek the approval of shareholders of the company through postal ballot.

12:28pm Goldman Sachs initiates buy rating on Power Grid
Goldman Sachs initiates coverage on Indian power companies with a 'buy' rating on Power Grid Corp of India, saying the sector could benefit from recent reforms, although the magnitude of power tariff hikes could be the biggest risk.

Goldman says recent reforms including higher coal availability and a debt restructuring of distribution companies could help support shares in the sector.

Goldman expects state-run companies to generate higher returns compared with independent power producers in the near term, but returns on equity could remain under pressure due to tighter regulation.

Goldman assigns 'neutral' ratings on NTPC, NHPC and  Tata Power Company.

The bank has started coverage on Reliance Power with a "sell" rating, saying the company's three ultra mega power projects could face delays and low returns, reports Reuters.

12:18pm Blackhorse on Fed tapering
For all its talk of cutting back on the monetary stimulus, the US Federal Reserve may be in no position to end its monthly bond purchases in 2014, feels Richard Duncan, chief economist of Blackhorse Asset Management Co.

After much deliberation, the Fed decided to trim monthly bond purchases to USD 75 billion from USD 85 billion from this month. The original plan last year was to pull the plug on the bond purchases by the end of this calendar.

However, economic data continues to give conflicting signals, with the latest employment figures pointing to weakness in the economy. That could hold the Fed back from tightening the liquidity tap for fear of choking nascent growth.

Duncan expects asset prices to start going down only after the Fed ends its quantitative easing (QE), the technical term for its monetary stimulus.

He expects yen to depreciate in the coming months and Nikkei to move higher.

12:08pm The market pared gains in noon trade as index heavyweight Reliance Industries extended losses to 1.6 percent from 0.8 percent in last one hour post third quarter earnings.

The Sensex rose 72.66 points to 21,136.28, and the Nifty climbed 21.45 points to 6,283.10. About 1188 shares have advanced, 994 shares declined, and 239 shares are unchanged.

Technology stocks are on buyers' radar. Wipro topped the buying list, rising 4 percent post earnings. TCS too gained 3 percent followed by HCL Technologies with 2.5 percent upmove.

Shares of ITC , Tata Motors , Mahindra and Mahindra , and Hindalco Industries rallied a percent each.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India , ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank climbed over 0.4 percent.

However, Hindustan Unilever , Larsen and Toubro , Tata Steel , Sun Pharma , Sesa Sterlite, Bharti Airtel , Axis Bank and Tata Power fell 0.5-1.5 percent.

Among midcaps, Aurobindo Pharma , eClerx Services , PTC India , Bajaj Electricals and Blue Dart gained 4-7 percent while Phoenix Mills , Puravankara Projects , FAG Bearings , Jyothy Labs and AIA Engineering lost 2.5-3 percent.

12:00 pm Outlook: For all its talk of cutting back on the monetary stimulus, the US Federal Reserve may be in no position to end its monthly bond purchases in 2014, feels Richard Duncan of Blackhorse Asset Management Co.

After much deliberation, the Fed decided to trim monthly bond purchases to USD 75 billion from USD 85 billion from this month. The original plan last year was to pull the plug on the bond purchases by the end of this calendar.

However, economic data continues to give conflicting signals, with the latest employment figures pointing to weakness in the economy. That could hold the Fed back from tightening the liquidity tap for fear of choking nascent growth.

11:50 am Interview: A 40 percent rise in volumes helped post strong numbers for the December quarter, Deepak Amitabh, Chairman & Managing Director of PTC India said in an interview to CNBC-TV18 Monday.

He attributed the rise in volumes to conversion of long term power purchase agreements (PPAs). Brokerage house Antique has maintained its 'buy' rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 84. ''We expect volume growth to continue given the fact that due to coal constraints in the short term there may be higher regional deficits and with elections round the corner higher demand will lead to firming of interstate power trading,'' the Antique note to clients said.

11:40 am Poll: Asian Paints will declare its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect consolidated profit after tax of the company to rise 12.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 378 crore and total income to increase 14.7 percent to Rs 3,502 crore in the quarter gone by.

Higher depreciation and increase in tax rates should result in a muted PAT growth of 13 percent. Depreciation is expected to increase 60-70 percent and tax rate may jump by 130 basis points Y-o-Y.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) may grow 16.6 percent on yearly basis to Rs 595 crore and operating profit margin may expand 30 basis points to 17 percent compared to a year ago period.

11:30 am Exclusive: The decision to buy stake in Indian OIL Corp will leave ONGC with only Rs 2500 crore in its cash reserve, ONGC's Director, Finance Aloke Kumar Banerjee told CNBC-TV18.

The company had a cash balance of over Rs 13,200 crore at the beginning of the year, he said. He does not think buying stake in IOC at this point is a bad idea. Following a weak response to the proposed divestment in IOC, and also opposition from the OIL ministry on selling stake at depressed valuations, the government has decided to ask state-owned companies ONGC and Oil India to pick up stake in IOC.

The market is holding its gains supported by IT stocks. The Sensex is up 99.42 points at 21163.04, and the Nifty gains 30.45 points at 6292.10. About 1216 shares have advanced, 807 shares declined, and 228 shares are unchanged.

IT stocks are going strong with Wipro and TCS as big gainers in the Sensex. Tata Motors , M&M and ITC are gainers. Among the losers are Reliance , Tata Steel , Axis Bank , Tata Power and Sesa Sterlite.

Bonds rise ahead of RBI's open market operations of upto Rs 10,000 crore on Wednesday. Expectations that RBI may hold rates after fall in inflation rates in December also support.

The rupee trades slightly lower on global cues & dollar purchases by state-owned banks. However, dollar sales by some foreign banks restrict losses.

The dollar index is strong at a two-month high of 81.258 but for today the euro is bouncing back from the two-week low on the back of better risk appetite post the Chinese GDP.

Gold is at a 6-week high. Brent trades marginally lower today hovering at USD 106 per barrel.

Asia trades mostly in the red today. China is in focus as it released its Q4 GDP data which was slightly ahead of expectations clocking in a growth of 7.7 percent.

10:59am Ultratech Cement in focus ahead of Q3 results
Aditya Birla group-owned Ultratech Cement will announce its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax of the cement maker to fall 38.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 368 crore, dented by poor operational performance, higher depreciation.

Sales are likely to decline 1 percent to Rs 4,810 crore due to weak demand and prices.

On the operational front, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation may slip 23.8 percent on yearly basis to Rs 780 crore and margin may shrink to 16.22 percent in the quarter ended December 2013 from 21.09 percent in a year ago period.

Analysts feel absence of volume growth and continued pricing pressures will weigh on operating profit.

10:50am Gold Update
Gold edged higher on Monday to its highest in nearly six weeks, supported by weaker equities, which are lifting the metal's safe-haven appeal and improving investor confidence.

Spot gold rose 0.3 percent to USD 1,257 an ounce by 0012 GMT, after hitting USD 1,259.46 earlier - the highest since December 11. Platinum gained on upcoming strikes in South Africa.

SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 7.49 tonnes to 797.05 tonnes on Friday - the first increase in a month.

Hedge funds and money managers raised their bullish bets in gold and silver futures and options for a third consecutive week, as equities' weakness prompted funds to add precious metal positions, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.

Deutsche Bank will withdraw from gold and silver benchmark price setting, it said on Friday, as European regulators investigate suspected manipulation of precious metals prices by banks.

The main trade union for South African platinum miners will strike this week at the world's top three producers, hitting over half of global output and the margins of companies struggling to make profits, reports Reuters.

10:40am IOC talks on hike in cap of LPG cylinder
State-owned  Indian Oil Corporation sees under-recovery of Rs 5700 crore if the cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders is raised to 12 from 9 currently, the company's Director, Finance PK Goyal told CNBC-TV18 Monday.

OIL minister Veerappa Moily on Friday had said that the cap would be raised. This followed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's speech at the AICC session in which he proposed that the government should raise the cap.

According to Goyal, 97.2 percent of the users of LPG consume 12 cylinder annually. He added that so far there has been no communication from the oil ministry on increasing the cap.

Goyal said if the number of subsidised cylinders were to be raised, there would be no impact on the profit and loss account since the under recovery would be compensated by the government.

However, the move would impact working capital requirements of the company, Goyal said.

10:30am ONGC talks to CNBC-TV18
The decision to buy stake in Indian Oil Corporation will leave ONGC with only Rs 2500 crore in its cash reserve, ONGC's Director, Finance Aloke Kumar Banerjee told CNBC-TV18 Monday. The company had a cash balance of over Rs 13,200 crore at the beginning of the year, he said.

Following a weak response to the proposed divestment in IOC, and also opposition from the oil ministry on selling stake at depressed valuations, the government has decided to ask state-owned companies ONGC and OIL India to pick up stake in IOC. This is being done so as to enable the government to raise cash to bridge the fiscal deficit and meet the 4.8% target for the year.

The move has drawn criticism from the stock market, as it is seen hurting the capex plans of OIL and ONGC.

10:15am FII View
Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura sees market returns of 17 percent but advises staying cautious of potential post-poll volatility.

He expects the market's macro ecosystem this year to improve on both the inflation and rates fronts. Meanwhile, a range-bound rupee and slow growth should rein in the current account deficit against the backdrop of a rebounding global economy, he adds.

However, he expects growth to remain a drag this year, held down by weak investment and muted consumption.

10:00am The market gained strength after early rangebound trade, rising over 100 points on the Sensex. The Sensex rose 114.21 points to 21,177.83, and the Nifty added 42.25 points to 6,303.90.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.7 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1146 to 600 on the BSE.

Ultratech Cement, Aurobindo Pharma , Power Grid Corporation, Reliance Industries , SKS Microfinance , South Indian Bank , HDFC and TCS are most active shares on exchanges.

Shares of Aurobindo Pharma jumped 5 percent on acquisition plan. The generic drug maker has signed a binding offer agreement to acquire commercial operations of Dublin-based Actavis in seven Western European countries.

Biocon gained more than 3 percent as the company introduced world's first biosimilar Trastuzumab that drug is used for breast cancer treatment.

Wipro shares gained nearly 4 percent post third quarter earnings. The company expects IT services revenue in range of USD 1,712-1,745 million in the quarter ended March 2014.

TCS, ITC , HDFC Bank , Tata Motors , Mahindra and Mahindra , BHEL , and Hindalco Industries climbed 1-1.7 percent.

However, Reliance Industries is under pressure, falling 0.8 percent after third quarter earnings. Axis Bank , Sun Pharma , Bharti Airtel , Sesa Sterlite and Tata Steel are other losers.

10:00 am Stock in news: Biocon is up 3 percent as its generic version of Roche's Herceptin breast cancer treatment would be available to patients in India from the first week of February.

Bangalore-based Biocon jointly developed biosimilar trastuzumab, which received the Indian drug regulator's marketing approval in November, with US-based Mylan Inc. About 150,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in India, of which 25 percent are eligible for treatment with trastuzumab, Biocon said.

9:50 am Poll: UltraTech Cement may lag consensus profit forecast for the October-December quarter when it reports results later in the day, Thomson Reuters StarMine's SmartEstimates shows.

StarMine's SmartEstimates, which places greater emphasis on forecasts by top-rated analysts, expects UltraTech to report a profit of Rs 818 crore for the quarter, compared with a consensus mean estimate of Rs 890 crore.

9:40 am Buzzing: Shares of Aurobindo Pharma jumped 4 percent in early trade on the BSE as it is gearing up for expansions. The generic drug maker has signed a binding offer agreement to acquire commercial operations of Dublin-based Actavis in seven Western European countries.

Closing of the transaction is conditional on certain anti-trust approvals and completion of employee consultation processes, Aurobindo said, without disclosing the financial details of the deal. It expects to acquire personnel, commercial infrastructure, products, marketing authorisations and dossier licence rights in seven European countries.

9:30 am FII view: Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura sees market returns of 17 percent but is cautious of potential post-poll volatility. "We expect the market's macro ecosystem this year to improve on both the inflation and rates fronts. Meanwhile, a range-bound rupee and slow growth should rein in the current account deficit against the backdrop of a rebounding global economy. However, we expect growth to remain a drag this year, held down by weak investment and muted consumption," he says.

Chris Wood of CLSA believes the macro hopes of a sustained acceleration in US growth rest on a pick-up in capex and average hourly earnings growth. In the absence of that evidence the best that can be hoped for is a short-term acceleration driven by the end of 'fiscal drag', he adds.

The market started off trade on flat note on Monday following mixed Asian cues. The Sensex fell 45.38 points to 21,018.24, and the Nifty declined 14.05 points to 6,247.60. About 465 shares have advanced, 347 shares declined, and 150 shares are unchanged.

Wipro is the top gainer in the Sensex, followed by BHEL, Cipla, TCS and Coal India. Among the top losers are Axis Bank, Dr Reddy's Labs, HDFC, Reliance and L&T.

The rupee declined in the early trade on Monday. It has opened lower by 11 paise at 61.67 per dollar as against Friday's closing value of 61.55.

Agam Gupta of Standard Chartered feels dollar-rupee will open higher at around 61.70 level mainly reflecting dollar strength overnight.

He expects exporters to sell on upticks to 61.80 while the nationalised bank demand will support the pair at 61.50. "The flows are expected to be muted as US markets will remain shut today," he adds.

Meanwhile, the US dollar started at near a two-month high, having enjoyed a solid comeback last week after a string of mostly upbeat data convinced markets the Federal Reserve will continue its gradual withdrawal of stimulus.

In commodities, US crude fell in early Asian trading on Monday, easing from a two-week high. , Investors were awaiting the Chinese data, which was expected to show a slight slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. However, China's economy grew stronger-than-expected 7.7 percent in the final quarter of 2013 from the year-ago period, according to official data from the National Bureau of Statistics Monday.

Asian markets opened mostly lower on Monday. Shanghai Composite was down 0.18 percent, Nikkei declined 0.77 percent and Straits Times shed 0.48 percent.

From precious metals space, gold edged higher to its highest in nearly six weeks, supported by weaker equities, which are lifting the metal's safe-haven appeal and improving the investor confidence.