Markets turn choppy in early trades

Markets opened on a flat note, mirroring cues on the Asian front. Sensex opened up 21 points at 18,232. The index soon dropped into red to 18,147  down 64 points.

Nifty was down 19 points at 5,439.

"The trend deciding level for the day is 18,354/5,500 levels", said Angel Broking.

The Nikkei slipped 39 points to 10,804. Hang Seng shed 60 points to 23,534. Seoul and Straits Times were trading marginally in red, while Taiwan was unchanged at 8,845.

Markets here had their first weekly gain after falling for as much as 16% in the previous three weeks. Budget anticipation and an easing inflation buoyed investor sentiments. The Sensex ended at 18,202 - falling 295 points on the last trading day of the week. Nifty was down 88 points at 5,459.

The stage is set for pre-budget rally as markets are down 11% so far this year and India is the worst performing market after Egypt as foreign institutional investors removed $1.65 billion from Indian equities on widening corruption probe.

Stocks to watch out for this week includes Mahindra & Mahidnra, HDFC, Coail India and NTPC.

Most of the sectoral indices were in green today, led by capital goods, FMCG and metal stocks. However, BSE auto, realty and benkex were down in red.

BSE auto index dropped 1.2%.

Tata Motors slumped 2.5% to Rs 1,173. Ashok Leyland, Hero Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bharat Forge were down around 1% in trades.

Wipro jumped 2.3% to Rs 443. Sterlite Industries gained 2% at Rs 163.

Hindustan Unilever, BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure and Larsen & Toubro were up 1% each. Other gainers included ITC, Infosys and ONGC.

Among other Sensex stocks, TCS, DLF and HDFC Bank were trading on a weak note. NTPC and Tata Power were also in red.