Markets remain flat

Tata Steel top loser among the Sensex stocks

Markets continue to trade on a flat note in the morning deals. The Sensex is up 18 points at 17,780 and the 50-share Nifty is down 2 points at 5,701.

Meanwhile, Tata Steel is the top loser among the Sensex stocks, down 1.5% at Rs 394. Tata Power, Hindalco, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, Coal India, HDFC Bank and ONGC are also among the losers down 0.4-1.3% each.

On the other hand, Maruri Suzuki, Infosys, Tata Motors, Cipla, TCS, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, BHEL and GAIL India are among the gainers.

Among the individual stocks, Amrit Banaspati Company is trading higher by 6% at Rs 150 after the company said it has received a proposal from the promoters for voluntary delisting of the company’s equity shares from the stock exchanges.
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(Upadted at 9.17 AM)

Markets have opened on a flat note in trades today tracking mixed global cues and mild profit booking visible in selective pockets post the Friday's up move. The Sensex has opened higher by 26 points at 18,788 and the 50-share Nifty has advanced 2 points to 5,705 levels.

Meanwhile, in Asia, the Hong Kong and Chinese stock markets are closed today. Japan's Nikkei is however trading down 73 points at 8797 on the back of weak economic data impacting manufacturing activity in China, Japan's biggest export market, still in contraction in September, according to the official purchasing managers index. Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted are flat.

On Friday, the Wall Street closed its best third quarter since 2010 after a wave of central bank actions sparked a dramatic reversal in equity markets, but signs of weakness in the economy drove stocks lower on Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 49 points, or 0.36% to close at 13,437, S&P 500 Index lost 6 points to finish at 1,441 and the Nasdaq Composite Index  dropped 20 points to close at 3,116.

Back home, street would watch out at the HSBC India Manufacturing PMI for September 2012 which is to be announced later in the day.

Among the Sensex stocks, Infosys is the top gainer. It has advanced 2% to Rs 2,587. Cipla, BHEL, TCS, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Sterlite Industries and Reliance Industries have also opened higher by 0.3-1.3% each.

On the other hand, ICICI Bank, Tata Power, HDFC, Tata Steel, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto and ITC are among the laggards.

On the sectoral front, BSE IT index is the top sectoral gainer, up 0.8% at 5,970. Healcthcare, oil & gas, auto, PSU, realty, FMCG and power indices have opened flat, up 0.2-0.6% each. At the same time, bankex has opened lower by 0.3% at 13,098.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices have advanced 0.5% each ion the opening deals.

The overall breadth is positive as 893 stocks are advancing while 438 are declining.