Markets open flat; IT scrips drag

Infosys, TCS, Wiro and ITC were the draggers in opening deals

Markets witnessed a flat start as feeble global cues coupled with weakness in IT heavyweights weighed on the indices in opening deals.

Sell-off in IT front liners came about, after global IT giant Cognizant scaled down its annual revenue growth estimate citing weakness at certain clients and long sales cycles for certain large deals.

At 0945 hrs, the Sensex was down 42 points at 25,623 and the Nifty was off 10 points at 7,661.

The broader markets saw a green start with both the mid and smallcap indices up 0.3% each.

Sectors & Stocks

IT and Teck indices down 1% each were the top sectoral losers along with FMCG and Auto indices down 0.3% and 0.1% respectively.

BHEL and Tata Steel up 1% lead the gainers list. Coal India, L&T, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and RIL up 0.4-0.7% were some of the other notable gainers.

IT majors Infosys, Wipro, TCS down 1.5-2% were the major losers in opening trades.

Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra and HUL down 0.3-1% were the only other names in red.

The market breadth was very positive on BSE. 1,097 stocks advanced while 540 stocks declined.

Global Markets

Asian shares retreated while investors flocked to safe haven assets such as bonds and gold on Thursday, spooked by a Russian troop build-up on the border with Ukraine and tit-for-tat economic sanctions between the West and Moscow.

Sentiment soured further in Asia after the Australian dollar, seen as a barometer of risk appetite, sank after Australia's unemployment rate jumped unexpectedly to a 12-year high, sparking talk of an interest rate cut there.

Japan's Nikkei average fell 0.2% while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.3%.

Overnight, Major U.S. stock indexes ended little changed on Wednesday, as tensions in Ukraine and Russia and a failed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile offset gains in consumer staples shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.08%, to 16,443. The S&P 500 was unchanged at 1,920, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.05%, to 4,355.