Opening bell: Sensex, Nifty trades flat on mixed global cues

After three consecutive range-bound trading session in previous week, Indian equity inestors kept their nerves on Monday as the BSE Sensex went up by around 25 points to 36,415 after opening on lower note. The 50-share index Nifty too was trading topsy-turvy in between 10,889 to 10,919 levels. However, good news for the market inestors is Nifty sustaining above the 10,880 levels. Shares of all sectors went down except IT, oil, energy and gas.

Vakrangee, Sun Pharma, Time Technoplast, SREI Infra and Adani Transmission shares were top gainers while Linde India, TTK were among the top losers. IT major Aptech and Intense Technologies went up by more than 3.5 per cent while Infosys registered around 0.9 per cent jump from it preevious close. In telecom sector shares of ITI shot up by around 6.45 per cent, MTNL went up by near 2 per cent while GTL Infra went higher by around 4.5 per cent. In banking sector stocks, City Union Bank went down by near 1 per cent, Axis bank strip was down by around 0.75 per cent, Kotak Mahindra shares were down by around 0.65 per cent while FEderal Bank shares were up by around 0.3 per cent.

Commenting upon the market trends  Mehul Kothari, Senior Technical Analysit at IndiaNivesh told, " We have been waiting for quite some time for this breakout since we had a buy on dips view. Now, since the index has managed to close the week above 10880 the triangle breakout is being confirmed and Nifty has a potential to sneak above 11000 mark. However, we also maintain our stance that 11200 still remains a very strong hurdle for the bulls. Thus we would advise traders to start booking profits once index arrives near that zone. As of now, the support of 10620 has now been shifted to 10690." He said that only a move below the same might dwell the ongoing momentum. "For the coming sessions 10930 and 10770 would remain an intermediate resistance & support respectively for the markets. Currently we advise traders to trade with positive bias but avoid any overleveraged positions and follow strict stop loss," said Kothari of IndiaNivesh.

Asian markets too kept their nerve on Monday as data showed the Chinese economy slowed at the end of last year, underlining the urgent need for more stimulus as Beijing wrestles with the United States over trade. Markets reacted calmly, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.4 percent, after rising 1.6 percent last week. Chinese blue chips gained 0.97 per cent. Japan`s Nikkei added 0.5 per cent, helped by a recent pullback in the yen. 

The Australian dollar, often used a liquid proxy for China investments, nudged up to $0.7167.

E-Mini future for the S&P 500 eased 0.1 per cent, though trade was light with the US on holiday.