Markets open marginally higher

Consumer durables, realty stocks gain

Markets have opened in the green on the first day of February, which also marks the beginning of a new futures and option series tracking weak global cues.

Overnight, US share markets lost ground with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending 50 points, or 0.4 per cent, lower to 13,861, while the S&P 500 fell 4 points to 1,498.

Asian markets are also expected to trade soft on Friday, with caution likely to reign ahead of the released of closely-watched non-farm payroll data from the United States later in the day.

BSE consumer durables has shown momentum and is up 1.8% at 7,719. OIl & gas, healthcare, auto and metal indices are marginally up as well.

On the other hand, BSE bankex is down 0.04% at 14,575.

Bajaj Auto has jumped 2% at Rs 2,068. Tata Steel and Cipla are up around 1.5% each.  Tata POwer, Sterlite and Hindalco are also trading in green.

On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever has slipped 0.8% at Rs 469. Hero MotoCorp is down 0.7% at Rs 1,811, followed by Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. Banking shares are also weak - HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank are down 0.3% each. SBI, however is trading flat with a positive bias at Rs 2,445. Bharti Airtel is up 0.5% at Rs 341 ahead of its results which are expected within the next few hours.

BSE market breadth is positive. Out of 1,490 stocks traded, 968 shares have advanced while 453 shares have declined.