 "National Stock Exchange")
Markets opened flat with a negative bias on Tuesday, amid mixed global cues, with index heavyweights led by IT major Infosys leading the decline.
At 9:40am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 67 points at 25,669 and the Nifty50 was down 24 points at 7,810
"Nifty made a bullish engulfing price pattern on daily chart but now requires to cross and hold above immediate hurdle of 7850-7855 zones to witness an extended up move towards 7880 then 7920 zones. On the downside, now support are shifting to higher levels but if fails to hold 7750 zones then profit booking may drag it to 7700 and 7680 levels. Market has passed all the major event and now requires a follow up buying and shifting of base to higher levels to continue its upswing led by support based buying in next coming sessions," Anand Rathi said in a technical note.
Meanwhile, the government introduced the 'Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2015', or the bankruptcy Bill, in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Bill is one of the steps that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has identified as crucial for India to improve ease of doing business. The Bill has been introduced as a money Bill, which means it will not have to be passed in the Rajya Sabha, where the government has struggled to get legislative work done.
The rupee was trading higher by 6 paise at 66.29 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of 66.35 after banks and exporters pressed sales in the US currency.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities to the tune of Rs 37 crore on Monday as per provisional stock exchange data.
STOCKS IN FOCUS
BSE IT index was the top loser down 0.4% along with FMCG index which eased 0.2%. BSE Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices were the top gainers up 0.6%-0.7% each.
Sun Pharma was up over 1% amid short covering after the sharp decline in the previous session after the company said that it has received a warning letter from US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) for its manufacturing facility located in Halol in Gujarat. Among other pharma stocks, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla were up 0.5%-0.6% each.
Tata Motors was up 0.5% on reports that the company is working on partial hybrids and fully-electric systems for its future range of passenger vehicles.
Other Sensex gainers include, SBI, AXis Bank and HUL among others.
IT majors Infosys, TCS and Wipro were down on the back of sharp increase in US visa fees. Almost all Indian IT companies would pay between $8,000 and $10,000 per H-1B visa from April 1, when the next annual H-1B visa filing session starts, thus making it unsustainable for them.
Oil shares witnessed profit taking after recent gains. RIL and ONGC were down 0.4% each.
Other Sensex losers include, HDFC and ITC down 0.4% each.
Among other shares, Tide Water Oil (India) surged 18% to Rs 20,471, also its lifetime high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early morning trade after the company announced the bonus issue and stock split plan.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian markets were trading mixed with Shanghai Composite down 0.5% while Hang Seng eased 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei was trading flat with positive bias while Straits Times was up 0.3%.
US shares ended higher led by Apple and global IT major Microsoft along with healthcare stocks. The Dow Jones ended up 0.7%, the Nasdaq gained 0.9% and the broader S&P 500 ended up 0.8%.
