Nifty flat; HDFC, DLF slip, Tata Steel, L&T up

The benchmark Nifty was quiet in opening trade today, with a positive bias. Asian markets too were trading with marginal gains. Metal, oil & gas and select financials were on buyers' radar while ADAG, realty and private bank stocks were under pressure.

Tata Steel gained 2% after 1.5% fall in initial trade, as the company's Q3 consolidated net profit was up by 122% at Rs 1,003 crore on year-on-year basis but EBITDA margin was at 11.6% as against 13% in same quarter the last year. Raw material costs increased at Rs 10,270 crore versus Rs 8,030 crore, YoY.

Among frontliners, DLF, SAIL, Reliance Capital, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, IDFC, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, HDFC and ICICI Bank were witnessing selling pressure.

However, L&T, Tata Power, BPCL, Infosys, TCS, ITC and HUL were supporting the markets.

At 9:17 hours IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 18,314, up 40 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 8 points to 5,489.

However, the Nifty February futures were trading at 9 points discount. The CNX Midcap fell just 10 points at 7,730. 

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Hexaware shot up 5% as its adjusted net profit increased 135.7% at Rs 39.6 crore in fourth quarter of CY10 versus Rs 16.8 crore in previous quarter.

MIC Electronics and Thomas Cook were up 5% each. Escorts was up 2.5%.

M&M Financial up 1% as the compnay launched QIP worth Rs 426 crore, according to sources.

However, Unitech fell 2% as company's Sanjay Chandra was in CBI HQ for interrogations yesterday in 2G case.

Jet Airways was down 3% and Kingfisher Airlines down 1.5%. Mahindra Satyam fell 2.5%.

Bata and Jain Irrigation slipped 2%.

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The US markets ended marginally down on low volumes and deluge of economic data. Inflation concerns loomed in China and Britain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 42 points at 12,227. The Nasdaq Composite was down 13 points at 2,804 and the S&P 500 index fell 4.3 points 1,328.

Commodities

March crude oil contract was down 0.6% at USD 84.32 per barrel, lowest levels since November 30

March natural gas was up 0.9% to USD 3.97 per MMBtu

May wheat was down 3.5% and soybeans fell 2.5%

April gold rose 0.6% at USD 1374.10 per ounce

March silver was up 0.6% at USD 30.70 per ounce

F&O cues:

Total Nifty futures up Rs 998 crore, Options up Rs 4,679 crore

Stock futures net shed 2.7 cr shares in Open Int

Nifty Fut Open Int net add 1.2 lakh shares in Open Int; Nifty futures disc at 5 pts versus flat

Nifty Open Int PCR up at 1.17 versus 1.14

Nifty Put add 55.3 lakh shares, Call add 25.5 lakh shares in Open Int

Highest Open Int outstanding at 5400 Put, 5600 call (from 5300 Put), 5300 put

Nifty 5500 Put adds 22.1 lakh shares (45%) in Open Int; prem down up from 85 to 73

Nifty 5500 Call add 19.2 lakh shares (32%) in Open Int, prem up from 46 to 53

Nifty 5600 Call add 14.8 lakh shares (22%) in Open Int, prem up from 17 to 18.8

Nifty 5400 Put add 13 lakh shares (14%) in Open Int, prem down from 46 to 37.5

Nifty Mar 5500 Put add 2.8 lakh shares (23%) in Open Int

Nifty 5300 Call shed 8.6 lakh shares (21%) in Open Int

Nifty 5200 Call shed 3.2 lakh shares (12%) in Open Int