After a one day relief yesterday, the Sensex has again opened in the red, down 53 points at 18,395 and the Nifty has started at 5,515, losing 13 points. In the broader markets, the midcaps and the smallcaps have opened up 0.1% each outperforming the Sensex which is down 0.1% in the opening trades.
On the BSE sectoral charts, Consumer Durables, FMCG have opened in the positive gaining 0.5% and 0.2% respectively. Metal and Oil & Gas are trading flat and all the other indices are in the red.
On the Asian front, Japanese stocks rallied with several blue-chip shares boosted by strong earnings. The benchmark Nikkei Stock Average is up 1% at 10,550 while Jakarta Composite is down nearly 0.2%. Markets in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam are shut for the Lunar New Year holidays.
In the US markets, the markets closed near the session's highs with investors favoring shares of retailers after encouraging chain-store sales raised confidence ahead of Friday's jobs report. The Dow Jones was up 0.17%, at 12,062 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.16% at 2,754.
Hindalco, Reliance Communications up 1% each are the top gainers on the Sensex in the opening trades followed by Tata Motors, ITC, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto and Tata Power adding 0.3% - 0.5%
After a good run yesterday, DLF down nearly 3% is the top loser on the Sensex.Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Sterlite, L&T, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Cipla shedding 0.7% - 1% are the other noteable losers.
The market breadth is positive. Of the total 1330 stocks traded on the BSE, 678 stocks have advanced while 605 have declined.