Markets Open Positive

As expected in our morning update, the Indian markets have cut their losses and opened in the positive today. This was after they witnessed weak trading sessions in the last two days. Also, the rupee rebounded following the RBI's measures of fixing the intra-day open position limits at five times the net overnight open position limit. This has provided some boost to the market.

The Sensex and Nifty are both up by 1% each. Among the major sectors, all the indices barring IT are trading in the positive territory. Capital Goods, Auto and Bankex remain among the major gainers and are up by 1.41%, 1.39% and 1.34% respectively. Among others, Oil & Gas, PSU, Power, Realty and Metals all are up in the range of 1.12%-1.23%.

Other Asian markets opened in the negative territory and continue to remain weak. Weak Chinese trade data worried investors, and the growth slowdown of the economy dented the sentiment. Further, the problems in Greek persist, and this is another cause for concern over the recovery. The Hang Seng, Nikkei, and Shanghai are trading lower by 0.94%, 0.21% and 0.18% respectively.

The European markets closed in the red yesterday on the back of concerns on the bailout plan for Greece. The change in the political situation will hamper the country's plans.

Among the Sensex shares, Infosys and Sun Pharma are trading lower by 0.96% and 0.72% respectively. The rest of the shares are trading in positives. Of the major gainers, DLF, Bajaj Auto, Cipla and SBI are up by 2.06%, 1.54%, 1.83% and 1.93% respectively.

In individual stocks, GTL Infrastructure shot up by 9% after Indian Overseas Bank got 9% stake in the company through a convertible debentures conversion.

Index heavyweight RIL is currently down by 1.15% at Rs 700.50 after the news that the company has signed a $2 billion loan with nine banks for its petrochemical plant expansion projects at Jamnagar, Hazira, Silvassa and Dahej in India.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is positive. On the BSE, 1279 shares rose and 577 shares declined. 91 shares remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile for the day.