Markets open flat, Asia mixed

Markets open marginally lower on mixed cues from Asia, the Sensex is flat, down 2 points to 20,301 and the Nifty is unchanged at 6107.

Asian markets are trading mixed in the morning session despite overnight rally on Wall Street; strengthening Yen played a spoilsport in Japan, while petroleum product price surge boosted refiners in Shanghai. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.2%, exporters weighed. South Korea's Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted were flat. Hang Seng has fallen 0.2%, rise in refiners after China raised prices of petroleum-product prices failed to pull Shanghai Composite higher; currently the index has fallen 0.4%.

In India, selling pressure is seen in the IT stocks, TCS has fallen 1.4%, followed by HCL Technologies and Mindtee, down almost 0.6%.

Banking index is a laggard in the morning session; the index has fallen 0.4%. Ashish Chugh, Author of Hidden Gems said, “Cautious on banking as a sector as good things are already priced in, at least in the short-to-medium term.”  Punjab National Bank, down 0.8%, ICICI Bank, down 0.5% and SBI, down 0.3% is the top losers.

Consumer Durables is the top sectoral gainer, up 1.3; Gitanjali Gems and Titan Industries are the top gainers from this space, up over 2% each.

Maruti Suzuki