Day's Trades Open Flat

As expected in our morning update, the Indian markets opened on a marginally positive note today. There are hardly any major cues for the market that can decide on the direction. The Sensex and Nifty are marginally up by 0.06% and 0.05%. The RBI's latest move of reducing the repo rate has not given much impetus to the markets on back of rising inflation concerns. The latest CPI number for Mar 2012 has risen to 9.27% from 8.83% in Feb 2012 on account of higher prices of milk, vegetables and edible oil products.

Auto stocks continue to trade on a higher note post the rate cut announced by the RBI. Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki are trading higher by 0.45%, 1.65% and 1.81% respectively. Among the other sectors, Pharma, Consumer Durables, IT, Tech, etc. are trading higher with marginal gains between 0.24%-83%.

The Asian markets are not providing any direction today either, as the major markets in the region opened on a mixed note. The fall in property prices in China gave some relief on the rising housing market bubble. The Hang Seng and Shanghai are trading higher by 1.18% and 1.32% respectively, while Nikkei is trading strongly up by 2%.

The International Monetary Fund offered an optimistic view on global growth and raised its growth forecast from 3.3% to 3.5% on the back of improved activity in the US and receding worries over the Euro zone debt problems.

After reporting strong Mar 2012 quarter numbers, HDFC Bank and HCL Tech continue to trade higher with gains of 0.72% and 0.29% respectively. Sun Pharma's stock moved higher after winning the litigation in the US over a patent, and is now trading up by 1.17% at Rs 603.50.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is positive. On the BSE, 1128 shares rose and 787 shares declined. 85 shares remained unchanged.

Overall, we expect the markets to remain flat but positive for the day.