Markets open soft on global cues

Markets opened on a soft note this morning, following cues from global markets. The Sensex opened down 50-odd points at 16,435. The index is now down 36 points at 16,446. Nifty is down nine points at 4,927.

Wall Street ended on a lacklustre note on Thursday  after manufacturing data came in stronger than forecast, but gains were capped as investors took a breather from the previous session's powerful rally. In Asia this morning shares traded on a weak note ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Straits Times slipped around 1% each in morning trades.

Most of the sectoral indices were in red with the BSE metal and Oil & gas indices slipping 0.6% each. The FMCG index is trying to stay in green. The IT index has moved up to 5,619.

Maruti Suzuki gained 1.4% at Rs 976 on news that the company's Manesar plant will run at full capacity by January 2012. Hindustan Unilever from the FMCG pack added 1% to Rs 395. Tata Motors advanced 1% to Rs 185 as sales jumped 40.64% at 76,823 units.

Infosys, Tata Power, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank advanced marginally as well.

Meanwhile, ONGC slipped 1% to Rs 263. Bajaj Auto, Coal India, Sterlite and Hindalco shed around 1% each.

Hero MotoCorp slipped 0.7% at Rs 2,074 in spite of the company registering a jump of 27.39 per cent in sales during November 2011 on y-o-y basis.

ACC that reported an over five per cent increase in sales for the month of November at 1.83 million tonnes. The stock gained 0.5% at Rs 1,177.

BSE market breadth is neutral. Out of 1,527 shares traded so far, 757 shares have advanced while 694 shares have declined.