Coal India, Maruti gainers; Sensex, Nifty sluggish

1:30 pm Corporate interview: The festive season was a disappointment and the outlook for the automobile industry is likely to remain grim for this year, says RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki . According to the auto industry veteran, the worst is not yet over for the sector. He, however, admits that the growth in November picked up though whether it will be sustainable or not is yet to be seen. Bhargava adds that though exports have increased substantially, they may not salvage the growth for the entire sector as the total volume of exports is still a very small part of the production. Get rich in 2015: Macquarie tells you which realty stocks to buy/sell The market is flat as the Sensex is down 48.47 points at 27553.54. The Nifty is down 11.05 points at 8281.85. About 1201 shares have advanced, 1421 shares declined, and 115 shares are unchanged. Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Maruti and Tata Power are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the top losers are GAIL, Sesa Sterlite, TCS, BHEL and Tata Steel. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will start talks with the government for an "appropriate timeline" to ensure the economy is within a medium term inflation target of 2-6 percent, Governor Raghuram Rajan. "Going forward, we will discuss an appropriate timeline with the government in which the economy should move to the centre of the medium term inflation band of 2-6," Rajan said. Rajan added "a glide path" towards lowering inflation to those levels worked best for India by ensuring moderate economic growth. Oil's slide to the lowest price in more than five years is carving a divide between US shale drillers who heavily hedged future production and those who didn't. Oil producers typically hedge against lower prices by locking in some of their future production at favorable prices through swap transactions sold by banks, or by buying options as insurance against lower prices.