Market test choppy waters post weak opening

With F&O expiry in view, market is choppy in early trades

Key benchmark indices inched higher after opening slightly in red tracking weak SGX Nifty which was trading at 6230.50 down 20 points.

The two-day US Federal Reserve meeting ended with its chairman, Ben Bernanke, deciding against immediate tapering of the $85-billion-a-month bond buying programme. The tone of the policy statement was interpreted as slightly "hawkish" by experts. World markets are trading lower following the development.

At 9:25am, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 21,024 down 9.68 points from its previous close while broader 50-component NSE Nifty index was trading down by 9 points at 6,243 levels.

Broader markets remained slightly in positive zone with BSE mid-caps and small-cap indices trading higher between 0.1-0.2% in morning session trades.  

Market will remain cautious today as traders will roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near month to November series. The near month October derivatives contract will expire today.

The rupee was trading higher at 61.38-a-dollar against its previos close of 61.23 per dollar in early trades today.

US stocks fell on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 snapping a four-day streak of gains after the Federal Reserve said it had a weaker growth outlook for the economy, even as it held steady with its stimulus program for the time being.

Dealers said the market had talked itself into expecting the Fed would make dovish changes to the statement, so it was somehow considered "hawkish" when those did not materialize.

Trading was volatile following the release of the statement, with the major US stock indexes cutting losses to turn flat and dropping to session lows. Almost 70 percent of stocks on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq declined, while all 10 S&P 500 sector indexes fell.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 61.59 points, or 0.39 percent, to end at 15,618.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 8.64 points, or 0.49 percent, to finish at 1,763.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 21.72 points, or 0.55 percent, to close at 3,930.62.

Asian markets suffered a glancing blow on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy outlook was deemed less dovish than some had wagered on, lifting both bond yields and the dollar.

Yet the losses were modest with MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off just 0.2 percent. Shares in Australia lost a tenth of a percent while Japan's Nikkei eased 0.3 percent.

Back home, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Dr Reddy's Labs, I D F C, Sesa Sterlite, Titan Inds will unveil their second quarter earnings.

STOCKS TO WATCH

The government on Wednesday asked Reliance Industries to give up 81 per cent of its KG-D6 gas block, including five discoveries, as the time allocated for producing from these had expired.

Infosys Ltd, India's second-largest IT services exporter, has agreed to pay $34 million in a civil settlement with US authorities investigating its use of visas in the United States, the company said on Wednesday.

The government today approved a policy for procuring medicines produced by Central PSUs, a move which aims at optimum utilisation of such units while ensuring availability of medicines at lower prices.