Market firm up after flat opening

Stock markets opened flat with a positive bias on Tuesday amid mixed cues from Asia.

At 9:20 am key benchmark indices opened a tad higher with the 30-Share BSE Sensex trading at 20,543 up 54 points while Nifty is at 6097 up over 20 points.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei extended gains and was trading 1.6% higher on Tuesday amid a weaker yen on better-than-expected US jobs report. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.2% while Straits Times and Hang Seng were down 0.1-0.6% each.

At 9:20AM the rupee is trading at 63.43/dollar on Monday, against Friday’s close of 62.48/dollar, a fall of 1.22 per cent. It had opened at 63.01/dollar, tracking the non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market.

Around the same time, the SGX Nifty was flat with a positive bias at 6,122.

US benchmark share indices ended flat with a positive bias on Monday with the DOw Jones closing at a record high after better-than-expected US jobs data last week raised the possibility that the US Fed may start reducing its monetary stimulus measures sooner than expected.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 21.32 points, or 0.1%, to end at 15,783.10. The

Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed 1.28 points higher, or 0.1% higher, at 1,771.89. The

Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.56 points or 0.01% to end at 3,919.79.

In Europe, almost all the major markets closed marginally higher. CAC, DAX and FTSE gained in the range of 0.3-0.7%.

Stocks to watch

Corporation Bank is likely to open lower after the Mangalore-headquartered public sector lenderreported a 96 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 15 crore for the quarter ending September 30.

Wockhardt may see an uptick on news that its board has endorsed the decision of its Switzerland-based arm Wockhardt Bio AG to undertake a European listing.

IOC will be in spotlight as Government will begin roadshows in US today for sale of its 10% stake in nation's largest oil firm, that may fetch as much as Rs 3,900 crore.

Gillette India may see some moves as promoters are likely to sell shares worth over Rs 550 crore through Offer for sale route on Wednesday inorder to comply with Sebi's minimum public shareholding norms.

AstraZeneca may see an uptick as the company's narrowed its loss to Rs.1.22 crore in the July-September quarter from Rs.45.11 crore a year ago.