Sensex, Nifty 50 flat; Biocon, South Indian Bank, Vedanta, Yes Bank, Bharti Infratel top gainers today

Benchmark Indian indices today opened flat. The Sensex was trading at 37,831 while Nifty remained at 11,247. Among top gainers on the stocks include Biocon, South Indian Bank, Vedanta, Yes Bank, Bharti Infratel and Indiabulls Housing, while losers are JSW Steel, PVR, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, IOC, Dr Reddy's, and Infosys. 

Notably on Thursday, the Sensex closed at 37,830, down 16 points at 0.04 per cent, while the Nifty finished at 11,252, 19 points or 0.17 per cent lower.

Amid neutral global markets, foreign institutional investors, domestic institutional investors, futures and options and negative sentiment cues, short-term trend of the domestic markets will remain negative today. However, Zee Business's Managing Editor Anil Singhvi's Market Strategy for today is:

1. Small day range for trading on Nifty stands at 11,225-11,275 while the medium and bigger ranges lie between 11,200-11,300 and 11,100-11,350 respectively. 

2. Small day range for trading on Bank Nifty stands at 28,925-29,125 while the medium and bigger ranges lie between 28,850-29,250 and 28,500-29,350 respectively. 

3. Fresh downside risk opens if Nifty trades below 11,200 and Bank Nifty below 28,800. 

देखिए बाजार का शुरुआती एक्शन #FirstTrade में @AnilSinghviZEE और बाजार के दिग्गजों के साथ। https://t.co/g2p8Zibc22

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) July 26, 2019

Even as Sensex and Nifty continued to witness declining trend for the sixth straight trading session on Thursday amid foreign fund outflow, certain stocks came in news after the market was closed for the day that they can have an impact on the indices after the market opens on Friday. 

According to Zee Business, these key five stocks include Punjab National Bank (PNB), Shriram Transport Finance Co. Ltd, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Techno Electric & Engineering Company Limited, and AstraZeneca/Dr Reddy.

On global front, Asian share prices opened a tad lower on Friday on mixed US earnings reports and the euro held above two-year lows struck overnight after the European Central Bank held interest rates steady, though officials said a cut was certain in September, said a Reuters report, adding that MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.15% while Japan`s Nikkei dipped 0.3%.

Wall Street shares reportedly fell from record highs on Thursday, with the S&P 500 losing 0.53%, following a flurry of downbeat quarterly results from Ford Motor and other companies, but several firms that announced their results after the market had closed on Thursday generally beat market expectations, and their shares rose in after-hours trade.