Nik's Diary The Indian market opened with a positive bias mirroring positive start to SGX Nifty and most Asian indices. On the economic front, consumer prices in Japan declined for the seventh time in eight months, to 0.2% (ex. fresh food) in December 2012 as against inflation target of 2% by Bank of Japan (BoJ). This has raised hopes amongst investors of a stimulus package by the BoJ. The US stocks ended on a mixed note on Thursday after markets remained volatile throughout the trading session. While upbeat jobs data and earnings news cheered the traders; disappointing quarterly results from technology giant Apple weighed on trader sentiments. Apple reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings but weaker-than-expected sales as iPhone sales missed expectations. On the economic front, data from the Labor Department surprised positively as initial jobless claims dipped to 330,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 335,000. Meanwhile, the Indian markets fe...