Nifty flat; BPCL, Cairn India, ICICI Bk, Wipro top gainers

ALSO READ See Key Market Stats - Top Gainers/ Losers, Most Actives, Highs/Lows See how Global Markets are trading Indian ADRs

Sensex opens lower; auto, metals, realty decline

The Sensex started the trade with negative bias as Shanghai fell 2.4%. There was some volatility in the markets as well. Realty, metal, auto, select banking and oil stocks were under pressure.

At 9:56, the Nifty fell 21 points, to 4,672 and the Sensex rose 72 points, to 15,829. The CNX Midcap and BSE Smallcap Indices were flat while the Nifty Junior fell 25 points, to 8,637.

Among the frontliners, Hindalco, Sterlite, Tata Steel, M&M, Tata Motors, Hero Honda, DLF, ONGC, HUL, Infosys and SBI were putting pressure on the markets.

However, BHEL, Wipro, GAIL and ACC were the gainers.

Midcap Space

Great Offshore was up 2%. Block Deal: 2.5 Lakh Great Offshore Shrs on the BSE at Rs 556/sh (0.6% Eq)

Bajaj Hindusthan was up 1%. Sakthi Sugars and Kothari Sugar went up 5% each.

DCB, PTC, Glenmark Pharma and Orchid Chemicals were up 2-5%.

NIIT and Mahindra Satyam fell over 1%.

Global cues:

Asian markets were trading mixed. Shanghai was down 2.4%. However, Nikkei rose 1.3% and Hang Seng up 0.5%. Jakarta, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were flat in trade.

The US markets ended marginally lower amid poor ISM services, ADP employment report. Financials limited losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 40 points at 9,281. The S&P 500 was down 3 points at 1,002.7 and the Nasdaq lost 18.3 points at 1,993.

Commodities:

The Reuters CRB (Commodity Research Bureau) Index was up 0.5%, after seeing recovery from day's low.

Crude oil rebounded from a loss of more than 2% to close 0.8% higher at nearly $72/bbl.

US fuel demand turned positive and was up 3.1%.

Gold snapped 4-day rally and was down 0.4% at $966.3/ounce.

Base metals continued to hit fresh 2009 high. They were up 15-20% in last 5 sessions.

Copper gained 2.5% at $6180/tonne. Aluminium was up 5%.

The Baltic Dry Index was down 3.4%.

Market cues:

-FIIs net buy USD 43.7 million on August 4
-NSE F&O Open Int up to Rs 67,145 crore
-FIIs net sell Rs 691 crore in cash on August 5 (prov)
-DIIs net sell Rs 24 crore in cash on August 5 (prov)
-FIIs net sell Rs 224 crore in F&O on August 5

F&O cues:

-Total Futures Open Int up by Rs 1500 crore, Total Options Open Int up by Rs 1800 crore
-Nifty August futures trading at a 11 point premium versus 1 point discount
-Nifty up 0.3%, Futures Open Int up 4%
-Nifty Open Int PCR up from 1.04 to 1.06
-Nifty IVs at 35-38%
-Nifty Puts add 17.3 lakh shares in Open Int , Nifty Calls add 11.4 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty 4300 Put Adds 4.3 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty 4700 Put Adds 2.2 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty 4700 Call Adds 4.1 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty 4800 Call Adds 3.2 lakh shares in Open Int
-Stock futures Adds 3.9 cr shares in Open Int