Markets open on a soft note

Markets opened on a tepid note following cues from global peers. The Sensex opened at 18142 - up 104 points. The index thereafter trimmed gains and was up 26 points at 18,063.

Nifty was up eight points at 5,404.

US markets jumped to two and a half year highs on Monday with S&P breaking the 1,313 mark. The Dow Jones was up 69 points, or 0.5%, at 12,162. The S&P 500 was up eight points, or 0.6% at 1,319.05. The Nasdaq was up 15 points, or 0.5% at 2,784.

Asian markets, however, were trading on a flat note. Nikkei moved up 34 points to 10,626. Hang Seng shed 20 points to 23,533. Markets in Seoul and Taiwan were trading unchanged.

SGX Nifty is trading weak this morning. The index was down eight points at 5,397.

Back home on Monday, Indian bourses ended on a quiet note with Nifty dropping below the 5,400 mark to end at 5,396. Sensex ended higher by 29 points at 18,037. The government estimated the GDP for the 2010/11 fiscal year to grow at 8.6% and was optimistic that India would move up in global GDP rankings to within the top 10 economies.

"NSE Index is trading in oversold zone and bounce could be expected; therefore best strategy would be only to buy at dips", said technical analyst, Ravi Nathani.

The markets will be looking at the GDP numbers which will come out later today and the all-party meeting convened by the finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to resolve the parliamentary deadlock on the issue of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam.

Several companies will also come out with their numbers today - including Adani Power, Patni Computers, Power Grid Corporation, PTC India and BEML.

Dr Reddy's has moved up over 1%. Power stocks are gaining. NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC were in the green.

Punj Lloyd and Lanco Infratech slipped on a weak perfomance in the quarter ending December 2010. Sun TV, Bajaj Hindustan, SCI and Spice Jet have gained.