Markets open flat; Nifty hovers around 8,775

At 9:40AM, the Sensex is at 28,868, lower by 28 points and the Nifty is at 8,768, down ten points

Markets continued to trade with marginal losses in early trades weighed down by profit taking in financials and FMCG major ITC.

At 9:40AM, the Sensex is at 28,868, lower by 28 points and the Nifty is at 8,768, down 10 points.

However, the broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.2-0.3%.

The benchmark indices had gained in five straight sessions hitting one-month closing highs; with the Nifty ending comfortably above the 8750 mark in Thursday's session on the back of India's outlook upgrade by Moody's.

The markets will keep an eye on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers for February to be unveiled in the course of the day.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 193.81 crore yesterday, 9 April 2015, as per provisional data.

"Technically, the market has extended its recent pull bull back beyond 50% retracement resistance and that might have triggered short covering in the market. Weak stocks have taken active interest in moving the market upward like Reliance Inds and Tata Steel," said Shrikant Chouhan, head of technical research at Kotak Securities in a note.

"We feel that it’s a “V” shape recovery trend of the market and major volatility above major supports 8700/8680 may be an indication of major up move in the near term. In such a scenario, we may even see the nifty very close to 8950/9000 in the near term. Fresh buying will trigger if Nifty manages to break 9130 in next 3 weeks of time. Expect weakness only below the level of 8680,” he adds.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares extended gains to hit fresh 15-year highs tracking overnight gains on Wall Street while loan payment of 450 million euros by Greece also aided market sentiment. Japanese shares advanced further with the benchmark Nikkei topping the 20,000 mark for the first time since April 2000.

However, profit booking above 20,000 capped further gains and the Nikkei was trading flat. Meanwhile, Hong Kong shares also witnessed profit taking after sharp gains in the previous few sessions which lifted the Hang Seng to fresh seven-year highs. The Hang Seng was trading flat with negative bias. Further, Shanghai Composite staged a recovery today and was up 0.7% while Straits Times was up 0.3%.

Major US share indices ended higher on Thursday amid a rally in energy shares after Brent crude prices rebounded after a sharp decline on Wednesday. Exxon Mobil gained 0.7% while Chevron Corp gained 0.27%. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.3% at 17,958.73, the broader S&P 500 ended up 9 points at 2,091.19 and the tech-laden Nasdaq rose 24 points at 4,974.57.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Healthcare index has slipped by over 0.5% followed by counters like Banks, Capital Goods, Metal and Realty, all declining marginally. However, BSE Oil & Gas, Power, Metal and IT indices are up 0.1-0.3%.

The main losers on the Sensex are Cipla, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, GAIL and Sun Pharma.

Hindalco has slipped over 1% after US-based aluminium major reported lower-than-expected revenues.

On the gaining side, RIL, ONGC, Infosys, Wipro and Coal India have gained between 0.4-1%.

Telecom stocks are in focus after the Telecom Regulator Authority of India reduced the tariffs on roaming for outgoing local calls and incoming calls on roaming. It has also mandated telecom service providers to offer a special roaming plan. Bharti Airtel is down almost 1%.