Nifty consolidates after rally in previous sessions

The benchmark Nifty was positive in opening trade in the first session of the week, but amid mild gains amid extreme volatility, as the index rallied smartly in previous four sessions following an upmove in global markets.

Almost all asset classes heaved a sigh of relief and perked up during the week on news of slight containment of the nuclear disaster in Japan, says Nandan Chakraborty of ENAM.

He feels that, however, the West Asian crisis may continue to dictate the market direction in the near-term. "The bias is definitely going to be on large caps from here on as the structural story remains intact."

Among frontliners, Tata Motors, Maruti, M&M, Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto, HUL, Reliance Industries, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SAIL, IDFC, SBI, L&T and Ranbaxy Labs were leading the markets higher in early trade.

However, Infosys, Reliance Communications, Jaiprakash Associates, Sesa Goa, ONGC, NTPC and ICICI Bank were under selling pressure.

At 9:18 hours IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 18,893, up 77 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 20 points to 5,674. The CNX Midcap gained 22 points to 7,845.

Global cues:

Asian markets were trading mixed. Shanghai rose 0.8%. However, Nikkei, Hang Seng, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan fell 0.2-0.6%.

Wall Street advanced for the third straight day on Friday. The S&P 500 Index gave its best weekly performance since 1st week of February.

Technology stocks gained after an upbeat outlook from Oracle, which signals strong IT spending.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.4% at 12,220.6. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.3% at 1,313.8 and Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2% at 2743.1.

Accenture rallied 4.5% after it raised its guidance.

Oracle most traded stock on Nasdaq after forecasting a rise in new software sales and ended up 1.6%.

Commodities

CRB was up 2.5% last week after 3% decline in previous 2 weeks

On Friday Brent/ WTI was down marginally on light profit-taking

But for the week WTI went up 4.3% at USD 105.4/barrel. Brent crude remains stable, with gaining 0.6% at USD 115.6/barrel

Gold was down 0.6% on Friday after all time record of USD 1,447.4/oz on Thursday

Copper fell 0.1% on Friday; but it has seen 2% gain last week after 3% gain in previous week.

Commodities were flat this morning