Markets open flat; IT scrips gain

ICICI Bank, HDFC, L&T and ONGC weigh on the indices in opening trades

Markets started of a flat note with the benchmark indices in red in opening deals on back of weak global cues. At 0920 hrs, the Sensex was down 17 points at 28,482 and the Nifty slipped 14 points to trade at 8,515.

The ones leading the early losses were ICICI Bank, HDFC, L&T and ONGC.

In teh broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices were flat almost unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, bankex, Capital goods, Metal, Realty, Power indices started in red, down 0.3-0.9%.

IT and Health Care indices were the only pockets of strength with

BHEL, Maruti, Sesa Sterlite and HDFC Bank up 0.5-2.6% were the notable gainers.

IT names Infosys, TCS and Wipro gained 0.4-0.7%.

Bharti Airtel added a percent after the company announced that it had signed an agreement with American Tower Company (ATC) to sell about 4,800 of its telecom towers in Nigeria, as part of a debt-reduction exercise.

Among the ones in red were metal names like Tata Steel and Hindalco down a percent each due to profit taking after yesterday’s rally.

L&T, ONGC, Coal India, Tata Power and GAIL down 0.5-0.8% were the other notable losers.

The market breadth was negative on BSE owing to weakness in roader markets. 897 stocks declined while 817 stocks advanced.

Global Markets

Asian shares gave back some of their China-inspired gains, while oil prices slumped ahead of this week's OPEC meeting.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.3% after rallying in the previous session following China's surprise interest rate cut.

Japan's Nikkei stock average added 0.6%.

Overnight, US stocks rose on Monday on hopes that China will take further accommodative monetary policy action if needed. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.84 points, or 0.04%, to 17,818, the S&P 500 gained 5.91 points, or 0.29%, to 2,069 and the Nasdaq Composite added 41.92 points, or 0.89%, to 4,755.