Opening Bell: Nifty, Sensex open flat; auto gains, FMCG, IT stocks drag

The Indian markets opened flat amid mixed global cues on Tuesday. Benchmarks Nifty50 and the Sensex opened around their previous closings as two IPOs (Delhivery and Venus Pipes) is set to make debut on exchanges and (Aether Industries) will open for subscription on Tuesday. The broader Nifty 50 opened above 16, 200 and the Sensex around 54,300. outperforming benhmarks, Nifty midcap and smallcap rose 0.3% and 0.4% respectively in the opening trade. 

Sectorally auto, PSU Bank outperformed as FMCG, IT saw some selling pressure in the early trade.  

"There is no distinct trend in this whipsaw market. Daily trading for the near-term is fraught with high risk. It would be better for investors  to wait for the markets to consolidate. However, long-term investors can use the volatility to buy high quality stocks available at attractive valuations," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Financials, particularly leading banks, are value buys now, he says. Most of these stocks are trading at depressed valuations because of relentless FPI selling, said the expert.

"Paradoxically, their fundamentals are improving. Credit growth in the economy is impressive and asset quality of banks has improved substantially. Leading banks are well capitalised to profit from the rebound in the economy and pick up in credit growth. So, for investors with a medium to long-term perspective, financials provide a good buying opportunity," suggested Vijaykumar.

CEOs of Indian IT majors in their recent interviews in Davos have reiterated the strong demand and earnings visibility for the segment, he highlighted. So,  IT stocks also are good long-term investment now even though valuations are not cheap, the expert added.

In the pre-open, the Sensex was trading marginally lower by 43 points as 22 shares advanced and 8 declined on the 30-shares index.  

Earlier, cues from Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday. SGX Nifty, which hints at opening trend for the domestic market, was trading over 50 points higher in the early trade on the Singaporean exchange on Tuesday. Japanese Nikkei 225 was trading lower by 0.2%, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange and Chinese Shanghai Composite were trading flat with positive bias.  

On Monday, all three major U.S indices ended higher amid gains from banks and a rebound in market-leading tech shares. Dow Jones ended nearly 2% higher, Nasdaq settled with around 1.6% gain and S&P 500 added over 1.8% on Monday's closing.