By Rutam Vora, Commodity Online
Indian markets opened positive-to-flat in the morning hours on Friday, September 03, 2010 on the back of mixed sentiments in overseas markets.

Asian markets rose this morning on the back of improved outlook for US housing and jobs data. The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan were up by between 0.03% and 1.19%.

US showed sluggish progress on Thursday, 2 September 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 50.63 points, or 0.49% to 10,320.10.

Back home, the key benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty opened gap up, but soon returned to trade flat. At 10.40 am today, Sensex traded at 18257 points, up 18.8 points or 0.10%, while Nifty inched ahead with gains of 2 points or 0.04% to trade at 5488.

Market outlook for today

The markets opened tad higher amid calm global markets. The trade seemed choppy with some Asian indices giving up early gains, which made trades cautious in the local markets. Finance, Metals, Energy stocks showed some weakness, while on the flip side IT and auto stocks showed smart gains.

European markets do not seem to be promising, while on the domestic front some profit booking may be seen.

Energy stocks lose steam

Oil & gas stocks lost steam on the bourses today after gaining for the previous trading sessions. The sectoral index, BSE Oil & Gas traded with loss of over 0.3% in the morning trades at 10,004 points. The weakness was led by index heavyweight, Reliance Industries Ltd (BOM:500325) which fell by over 0.8% in the early trades today.

Cairn India Ltd (BOM:532792) traded with marginal loss of 0.07% on BSE today. Oil marketing major, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BOM:500104) traded with loss of over 1.5% in the morning trades. Meanwhile other oil retailers maintained marginal gains between 0.2% to 0.8% on BSE.

International crude prices remained lower. On NYMEX, Crude prices hovered at $ 74.7 per barrel, marginally down by $0.23 per barrel in the early trades today.

Auto stocks pushes indices up

Auto stocks maintained up rally mainly on account of robust monthly sales figures released in past two days. Hero Honda Motors (BOM:500182), Mahindra & Mahindra (BOM:500520) and Bajaj Auto Ltd (BOM:532977) gained over 1.5%.

Tata Motors Ltd (BOM:500570) rose 0.76% in the morning trades. Meanwhile, the sectoral index, BSE Auto traded at 8970 points up close to 1% in the morning trades today.

Most automobile companies posted robust sales for the month of August. Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and M&M recorded one of the largest monthly sales growths in August.

Metal stocks melt amid global uncertainty

Metal stocks were seen melting with marginal losses in the early trades on BSE today. The sectoral index, BSE Metals was down by 0.06% to trade at 15506.

Steel stocks shed most losses on the index. Tata Steel Ltd (BOM:500470) lost over 0.5%, while Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (BOM:532286) and Ispat Industries Ltd (BOM:500305) lost over 1%.

Among other metal stocks, Sterlite Industries (BOM:500900) and Hindalco Industries Ltd (BOM:500440) traded with loss of 0.1%, while Sesa Goa Ltd (BOM:500295) lost over 0.75% in the morning trades today.

Most metals remained weak on the back of selling pressure at higher levels.

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