Opening Bell: Nifty, Sensex open flat amid weak global cues; auto, realty stocks shine

The Indian markets opened flat amid weak global cues and volatility on Tuesday. Tracking Asian market and trends on the SGX Nifty, benchmarks Nifty50 and the Sensex opened flat, but gained minutes into the opening to trade in the green. The broader Nifty50 slipped below17, 300 and the Sensex shed around 100 points as the two indices opened at 16,248.90 and 54,309.31 respectively.  

In the broader market, Nifty midcap and small cap rose by 0.7% and nearly 1% respectively as India VIX hovered around 22-mark  

Sectorally, metal, consumer durable and energy stocks declined, while all other sectors turned green on Tuesday. Auto, PSU Bank and Realty stocks were lead gainers as market traded higher soon after opening flat.  

"The mother market US has turned distinctly weak with Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow at 1-year lows. European markets are moving in tandem with US markets. Relatively India is doing better thanks to the consistent buying by DIIs and retail investors," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
However, retail investors should not rush in to buy aggressively now since the market is not at buyable valuations, cautioned the market expertt. "Since there is a risk off environment globally, FIIs are likely to sell at every bounce in the market. High quality stocks like leading financials may be bought in small quantities.Rupee depreciation, which may continue, will impart resilience to IT stocks,".he added.

Meanwhile, in the pre-open, the Sensex declined more than 200 points as 12 shares advanced and 18 declined on the 30-share index.  

Earlier, all major Asian markets were seen trading negative in the early trade on Tuesday. Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 1.3%, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange dropped around 2.5% and Chinese Shanghai was trading with minor 0.10% cut on Tuesday.  

SGX Nifty Futures, which indicates opening trend for the Indian market, was trading lower by over 100 points on the Singaporean exchange around 8 am on Tuesday.  

Earlier, the US markets fell for the third day in a stretch as Dow Jones slipped nearly 2%, Nasdaq over 4%, S&P 500 over 3% and Russell 2000 dropped more than 4% on Monday.