Nifty trades below 2800; ICICI, HDFC Bank, Satyam lag

ALSO READ See Key Market Stats - Top Gainers/ Losers, Most Actives, Highs/Lows See how Global Markets are trading Indian ADRs Nifty BSE | NSE 25/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

The markets are trading weak with some volatility. The Nifty is trading below 2800 mark. ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Infosys, HDFC Bank, BHEL, DLF, TCS, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Satyam and SAIL are pushing markets down. However, NTPC, ONGC, ITC, Nalco, Cipla and HCL Tech are trying to support the benchmark indices.

The Sensex fell 181 points to 9,203 and the Nifty lost 34 points to 2,775, at 10:27 hrs IST. BSE Midcap went down 1.3% and Small Cap index fell 0.8%.

Market breadth is weak; about 929 shares have advanced while 1618 shares have declined. Nearly 645 shares are unchanged.

PN Vijay, Portfolio Manager, said it was very difficult to decide how the markets would pan out by the end of December. He expects to see some improvement in the market scenario only in six months time, considering, the fall the market saw during October and the water-shed situation we are in right now.

Great Offshore tumbled over 11%, as there are reports that its promoters are at risk of losing control as lender putting pressure to gap the shortfall.

Markets @ 9:58 am : Markets choppy; Nifty hovering @ 2800

The markets have opened flat and are trading with some choppiness. The Nifty is hovering at around 2800 level. Buying is seen in metal, select capital goods, oil and power stocks. However, selling is seen in select technology, realty and banking stocks.

At 9:58 am, the Sensex tumbled 122 points to 9,262 and the Nifty fell 17 points to 2,792.

Gainers are Tata Steel, SAIL, DLF, Idea Cellular, ONGC, Reliance Communication, Siemens, Reliance Infrastructure, NTPC, Reliance Power and Reliance Industries. However, Suzlon Energy, Unitech, L&T, ICICI Bank, Cairn India, Infosys and HDFC bank are losers.

Kingfisher Airlines jumped over 9%, as there are reports that the company is planning to sell some stake and is in talks with some overseas airline players.

Asian markets are trading flat. Shanghai Composite rose 8.47 points or 0.43% to 1,994.91. Hang Seng gained 191.04 points or 1.41% at 13,733.70. Jakarta Composite is flat at 1,264.44. Nikkei rose 236.02 points or 2.79% to 8,698.41. Kospi gained 8.56 points or 0.79% at 1,096.82.

However, Straits Times fell 1.55 points or 0.09% to 1,757.59 and Taiwan Weighted lost 5.48 points or 0.12% to 4,447.22.

US markets ended lower. An effort to rally in late trade could not be sustained as selling pressure intensified to rapidly send the stock market back to session lows. The Dow plunged 337.93 points, or 3.82%, to 8,497.31. The Nasdaq tumbled 79.85 points, or 5%, to 1,516.85 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index down 38 points, or 4.17%, to 873.29. 

Decrease in retail sales and weaker demand for mobile phones capped second straight weekly loss for US markets, which raised concern about the depth of the recession.

Market cues:

India At G-20: Do not expect rate cuts as inflation not yet in comfort zone: FM

India At G-20: Need to strike balance between growth & inflation: FM

KV Kamath says there is room for interest rates to go down

FIIs net sell USD 152.5 million in equity

MFs net sell Rs 59.7 crore in equity

NSE F&O Open Int up by Rs 965 crore at Rs 49,882 crore

F&O cues:

Futures Open Interest up by Rs 191 crore, Options Open Interest up by Rs 774 crore

Nifty Futures add 1.8 lakh shares in Open Interest

Nifty Open Interest Put-Call ratio at 1.06 versus 1.07

Nifty Puts add 9.8 lakh, Calls add 14.5 lakh shares in Open Interest

Nifty 2700 Put adds 5.4 lakh shares in Open Interest

Nifty 2600 Put adds 3.5 lakh shares in Open Interest

Nifty 2900 Put sheds 2.6 lakh shares in Open Interest

Nifty 3000 Call adds 4.2 lakh shares in Open Interest

Nifty 2800 Call adds 2.6 lakh shares in Open Interest

Stock Futures add 1.6 cr shares in Open Interest