Markets open soft on global cues

BHEL, ICICI Bank and ITC slump

Markets have opened weak this morning following cues from global markets. The Sensex after opening at 19,666 has managed to recover marginally and is now down 46 points at 19,705. Nifty is down 24 points at 5,963.

U.S. stocks added to losses, with the Nasdaq falling 1.5%, on Monday as the market retreated from recent gains and as data on factory orders fell short of expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 130 points, or 0.93%, at 13,880. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 17.46 points, or 1.15%, at 1,495.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 47.93 points, or 1.51%, at 3,131.17.

Asian shares eased on Tuesday as investors booked profits from recent strong rallies in the face of weak U.S. data and worries that a potential political shake-up could disrupt the eurozone's efforts to resolve its debt crisis. Nikkei slipped 1.2% at 11,121. Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.5-1.5% each.

BSE healthcare index has managed to buck trends and is up 0.8% at 8,028. However, realty index is down 0.8% at 2,184. consumer durables, power and capital goods indices are down 0.5% each.

Sun Pharma is up 4.3% at Rs 749. GAIL has gained 1.5%, followed by ONGC and TCS.

On the other hand, BHEL has slumped 1.2% at Rs 214. Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Sterlite and Jindal Steel are down 1-1.4% each.

Jain Irrigation Systems has dipped over 6% to Rs 66.95 in opening deals after reporting a net loss of Rs 31 crore for the third quarter ended December, 2012 (Q3), mainly due to unrealized forex losses of Rs 57 crore. The company had clocked a net profit of Rs 1.24 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Jubilant FoodWorks reported 27.96% jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 37.71 crore for the quarter ended December 31. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 29.47 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, Jubilant FoodWorks said in a filing to the BSE. The stock has sumped 5.8% at Rs 1,068.

BSE market breadth is negative. Out of 1,519 stocks traded, 949 stocks declined and 520 stocks advanced.