Markets open on a cautious note; Nifty holds 8,200

Markets continued to trade in a narrow range in early deals as selling by foreign funds in blue chip counters continued to weigh on sentiment.

At 9:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 22 points at 27,199 and the 50-share Nifty was up 3 points at 8,216.

Technical Outlook

According to analysts, Nifty is fast approaching its trendline support, which is placed at around 8,100 - 8,150 levels.

"Going ahead, we expect the Nifty to give a pull back rally from the mentioned support zone and hence traders should not create fresh short positions at current levels. Traders can initiate long positions at the mentioned support zone for a minor pull back rally. On the flipside, the immediate resistance zone for Nifty is seen around 8,300-8,350 levels," points out a morning note from Angel Broking.

Sectors & Stocks

Oil and Gas, Auto and Bankex were the top sectoral gainers while Healthcare, Consumer Durables and IT indices were the top losers.

ITC, Infosys and HDFC Group shares were down 0.8% each in early trades contributing the most to the Sensex losses.

Telecom majors were trading mixed ahead of their March quarter earnings. Bharti Airtel was down 1.3% while Idea Cellular was up 0.1%.

Meanwhile, pharma shares continue to witness profit taking. Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla and Sun Pharma were down 0.3-1.2% each.

However, a sharp rebound in ICICI Bank helped capped further downside. The stock was up over 3%. The stock had corrected post its March quarter earnings on concerns of higher non-performing assets in the fourth quarter.

Market breadth was neutral with 750 losers and 740 gainers on the BSE.

Global Markets

Asian shares were mostly trading lower with the exception of Japan. The Nikkei was up 0.4%. While other markets in the region witnessed profit taking after gains in the previous sessions. The Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were down 0.1-0.5% each while the Straits Times was down 0.5%.

Major US stock indices ended with marginal losses as investors turned cautious ahead of the two-day Federal Reserve meeting starting later today that would signal its stance on key policy rate. The Dow Jones ended down 42 points at 18,037.97, the S&P 500 lost 9 points at 2,108.92 and the Nasdaq ended down 32 points at 5,060.25.