Markets opened in the green tracking firm global cues but slipped into the red shortly on back of losses in oil & gas shares. The Nifty was down 2 points at 5466 and the Sensex was slipped 10 points, at 18,140..
Elsewhere in the world, markets rallied after G-7 (Group of Seven) consensus with Japan to stem Yen's appreciation. Markets in the US also ended higher supported by rally in the blue chip stocks. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.8%, at 9,120 after Yen eased and lack of new reports from the Fukushima nuclear reactor improved investor sentiment. Hong Kong's Heng Seng advanced 0.4% following strong earnings from PetroChina which reported 37% jump in profit. Singapore’s Straits Times climbed 0.2%, Taiwan's Weighted index zoomed 1.1% and South Korea's Kospi Composite was up 1.3%.
Back in India, downside risks remain on back of global and political uncertainty. Yesterday, WikiLeaks reported that the congress offered bribes to win the crucial vote on US-Indo nuclear deal. Jordon Kortick from Barclays Capital in an interview with CNBC said, "Nifty is vulnerable to the downside and the best case scenario is range bound trade and a holding pattern for Nifty." However, Kortick is bullish on the Indian markets in the long term.
Metal shares rallied in trade after global metal prices advanced. Shanghai Copper climbed 3% tracking gains on London Metal Exchange. BSE Metal index was up 0.8%, SAIL advanced 1.4%, Hindalco Industries climbed 1.3% and Bhushan Steel was up 0.4%.
BSE Oil & Gas turned negative on back of spike in global crude prices and losses in Reliance Industries (down 1.7%) on reports that the production of natural gas and crude oil could drop further. HPCL and BPCL declined 1.8% each.
Top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki, up 2.3%, Bharti Airtel, up 1.5% and Larsen & Tourbo gained 0.9%. Top losers were TCS, down 1.5%, BHEL fell 1.1% and HDFC declined 0.9%. From the broader markets space the midcap and smallcap indices were up 0.3% each.
Market breadth was positive, 916 stocks advanced for 606 stocks which declined.