Mkt ends flat: IT stks plunge; realty, cap goods up

The markets ended flat with positive bias amid a mildly choppy session moving in a tight range. Selective buying was seen in broader markets, which gave markets positive breadth. Among the sectoral indices IT stocks were beaten down and the IT index was down over 4%. Buying interest was seen in realty, power, capital goods, pharma, banking and metal stocks. Most of the Asian markets ended lower.

The markets are trading absoluetly flat amid a mildly choppy session moving in atight range. Selective buying is seen in broader markets, which has given market a positive breadth. Among the sectoral indices IT stocks have been beaten down and the IT index is down over 4%. Buying interest was seen in realty, power, capital goods, pharma, banking and metal stocks. Most of the Asian markets are trading in red.

Top gainers were JP Associates, BHEL, NTPC, Zee Entertainment and Unitech while losers - TCS, Satyam and Wipro.

Orchid Chem, Reliance Industries and RNRL were most active shares on the bourses.

On the primary market front, Kiri Dyes and Chemicals was trading at Rs 179, up 20% over its offer price of Rs 150, with volumes of 29,87,290 shares on the BSE.

BSE Realty, Power and Capital Goods indices were up over 1.2%. Bankex, Healthcare and Metal gained marginally.

However, technology stocks have beaten down due to weak earnings from TCS, which were below estimates. The BSE IT index was down 4%. FMCG and Oil also down.

Mkts choppy: Realty, power stks up, IT down

The markets have recovered smartly after losing some gains in early trade and turned into choppy mode. Market breadth is positive. Buying interest was seen in realty, power, capital goods, pharma, banking and metal stocks while technology and telecom stocks lost some shine today. Midcap and small cap stocks are back in the green.

At 11:03 am, the Sensex was up 15 points at 16,754 and the Nifty up 4.75 points 5,041.

Midcap and small cap stocks were trading strong, indices were up nearly 1% each. Market breadth is positive, About 1850 shares have advanced, 986 shares declined, and 241 shares are unchanged.

Top gainers were JP Associates, BHEL, NTPC, Zee Entertainment and Unitech while losers - TCS, Satyam and Wipro.

Orchid Chem, Reliance Industries and RNRL were most active shares on the bourses.

On the primary market front, Kiri Dyes and Chemicals was trading at Rs 179, up 20% over its offer price of Rs 150, with volumes of 29,87,290 shares on the BSE.

BSE Realty, Power and Capital Goods indices were up over 1.2%. Bankex, Healthcare and Metal gained marginally.

However, technology stocks have beaten down due to weak earnings from TCS, which were below estimates. The BSE IT index was down 4%. FMCG and Oil also down.

At 9:56 am - The markets have opened lower and broken its five-day winning streak due to profit booking, lower earnings from largecap companies and weak global cues. Selling pressure has seen in power, auto, banks and technology stocks. Midcap and small cap indices were flat in early trade.

HDFC Bank, RIL, Wipro, Satyam, Infosys, Tata Power, Reliance Energy, Hero Honda, Tata Motors, L&T and Maruti were losers while gainers - Zee Enter, GAIL and Bharti Airtel.

Motilal Oswal went up 3.5% on good earnings while TCS was down 7% on results, which were below estimates.

On the primary market front, Kiri Dyes and Chemicals listed at Rs 184 as against its issue price of Rs 150.

Auto stocks are bit soft today as some banks started hiking interest rate on vehicle loans.

Asian markets were trading weak. Japan's Nikkei slipped 1.12% or 153.74 points at 13,542.81. Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled  0.99% or 245.38 points at 24,476.29. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted fell 0.67% or 61.05 points at 9,022.27. Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.41% or 13.11 points at 3,157.98. South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 0.49% or 8.90 points at 1,791.58.

US markets closed mixed as quarterly results from Bank of America fueled worries about bank earnings, while energy and tech gained. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 24.34 points, or 0.19%, to 12,825.02. The Nasdaq composite index gained 5.07 points, or 0.21%, to 2,408.04.

Market cues:

• RIL Q4 results in-line with expectations
• TCS Q4 results below expectations
• FIIs net buy USD 173.3 m in equity
• MFs net sell Rs 86.3 crore in equity
• NSE F&O Open Interest up by Rs 2,626 crore at Rs 69,692 crore

F&O cues:

• Futures Open Interest up by Rs 1,744 crore and Options Open Interest up by Rs 882 crore
• Nifty Apr Futures shed 12 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty May Futures add 25 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty Apr at 6-point premium, May at 16-point premium
• Nifty Open Interest Put-Call ratio at 1.30 Vs 1.22
• Nifty Puts add 17 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty Calls shed 1.4 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty June 4800 Put adds 6 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty Apr 5100 Put adds 3.8 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty May 5000 Put adds 3.2 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty Apr 5000 Call sheds 7.3 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty May 5100 Call adds 3.9 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Nifty May 5100 Call adds 3.3 lakh shares in Open Interest
• Stock Futures Open Interest unchanged