Markets open marginally higher, Infosys up 1%

Markets were trading marginally higher led by IT major Infosys ahead of its third quarter earnings on Friday

Markets were trading marginally higher in early trades on Thursday led by IT major Infosys ahead of its third quarter earnings on Friday.

At 9:20AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 48 points at 20,777 and the 50-share Nifty was up 13 points at 6,187.

Technical analysts are of the view that Nifty is likely to retest the levels of 6,150 in intra-day trades, in case the weakness persists in the first hour of trade.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were trading mixed on Thursday after a lackluster performance on Wall Street overnight and ahead of a key U.S. jobs report due out the following day, while the dollar stood near a seven-week high against a basket of currencies.

Market reaction was muted to a slowdown in China's annual consumer inflation in December, which decelerated to 2.5% from the previous month's 3%, more than what the market had expected.

Despite the yen's weakness, Japan's Nikkei benchmark shed 1.4%, giving up some of its 1.9% bounce in the previous session after losing nearly 3% in the first two trading days of 2014.

Overnight, The S&P 500 finished nearly flat on Wednesday as equity indexes had a muted reaction to the minutes from the US Federal Reserve's most recent meeting, while Micron's strong results helped buoy the Nasdaq. Minutes of the Fed's December 17-18 meeting, after which the US central bank announced its decision to begin trimming its monthly bond purchases, showed Fed officials were careful to tread lightly as they embarked on the tapering process.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.41%, to end at 16,463. The S&P 500 dipped just 0.02%, to finish at 1,837. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.30%, to close at 4,166.

The BSE Metal index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 0.6% followed by Capital Goods, Bankex and Power indices.

Infosys witnessed short covering at lower levels after the recent correction and was up nearly 1% ahead of its third quarter earnings due tomorrow.

Coal India was up over 1% on plans of the company's board to announce interim dividend.

Other Sensex gainers include, L&T and Reliance Industries.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.5% each.

Market breadth was positive with 654 gainers and 256 losers on the BSE.