Markets open negative on weak global cues

After yesterday's rally, the Indian markets opened on a flat negative note on the back of weak global cues. The Sensex and Nifty are both trading down by 0.24% and 0.27% respectively.

Other Asian market opened on a mixed note today as investors remained concerned over the second bailout package to Greece. The Hang Seng and Shanghai are trading in the red zone, while Nikkei is up by 0.5%.

The European markets closed on a positive note yesterday on the hopes that the austerity plans to bail out Greece will help the economy to come out of the crisis. However, investors pared gains on a report that the Euro zone officials were considering delaying the second Greek bailout until after the country holds elections in April.

Back home, among the BSE sectoral indices, Power, CG and Realty are leading with gains of 2.35%, 1.54% and 1.17% respectively. Oil & Gas, Metals and CD are trading down by 1.12% and 0.87% and 0.70% respectively. Other indices are marginally up below 0.5%.

Of the Sensex shares, BHEL and Tata Power are leading the indices with gains of 3.57% and 4.12% respectively. Others like Bharti Airtel, Cipla, DLF, Hero MotoCorp and Jindal Steel, are trading with gains between1%-1.5%. Among the losers pack, Coal India, Hindalco, Sterlite, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors are down by 2%-3.7%.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is positive. On the BSE, 1259 shares rose and 872 shares fell. 97 shares remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain flat for the day. The European markets are also expected to provide some vital cues on the desired direction of the market trend in the late afternoon session.