1st day first show: Bulls keep Nifty above 5800

Indian equity benchmarks were quiet in opening trade on the first day of financial year 2011-12, but they still maintained a positive trend. The Nifty was still holding the 5800 level amid that volatility.

Global markets too were flat in trade. There was no major impact seen due to rise in Brent crude to USD 117 a barrel.

Infrastructure, FMCG and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group were leading the markets higher.

Among frontliners, Reliance Communications, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital, Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto, L&T, Reliance Industries, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank,

However, BPCL, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, SBI and PNB were witnessing selling pressure.

At 9:18 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty was trading at 5,843, up 10 points and the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 59 points at 19,504.

About 578 shares advanced as against 313 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Delta Corp was up 2% and Indiabulls Real up 2%.

Kalpataru Power rallied 8% on land buy news.

TVS Motor was up 1.5% and Hexaware up 2%.

Kingfisher rose 2.5%.

Nagarjuna Fertiliser, Chambal Fertiliser and National Fertiliser gained more than 1%

AP Paper was locked at 10% upper circuit.

However, DB Realty tanked 3.5%. Ispat was down 1% and BILT down 1%.

Smartlink Network was down another 7%.

LIC Housing Finance and Tata Coffee were down 1%.

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Asian markets were quiet in trade.

The US markets ended flat but scored their best first quarter performance since 1998. Oil prices surged past USD 106/barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 31 points at 12,320. The NASDAQ Composite was up 4 points at 2,781 and S&P 500 index fell 2 points at 1,326.

The Dow Jones gained 742 points or 6.4% in last quarter, best first quarter gain since 1998 ((when it gained 892 points)).

Commodities

May crude oil contract surged 2.5% at USD 106.72/barrel, best levels in 2.5 years

Crude oil had gained 17% in last quarter

May natural gas contract was up 0.9% at USD 4.39 per MMBtu

April gold contract went up 0.8% at USD 1436.9/ounce

May silver contract was up 0.7% at USD 37.82/ounce

May wheat contract was up 4.9%, corn gained 4.5% and soybeans up 2.8%.