Opening Bell: Nifty, Sensex open flat; auto shares drag

The Indian markets started Monday's session flat weighed down by auto shares, mixed global cues, and fear among global markets due to the Omicron virus scare.  Benchmarks Nifty and the Sensex opened at 17,168.65 and 57,741.43, respectively.  

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Among the top gainers on the Nifty were Tech Mahindra, Coal India, HDFC, SBI Life, and Hindustan Uniliver, while Maruti, Eicher Motors, Tata Motors and Infosys dragged the index the most.  

The Indian benchmarks started today on flat note amid mixed global cues, said Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, Capitalvia Global Research Ltd. 

He said traders will be concerned with the emerging cases of Omicron variant of Covid -19.  

"Market participants will keep eye on the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee (MPC) three days deliberations which will begin today. Some cautiousness will come with the exchange data showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers for Rs. 3356.17 crore in the Indian markets," said the analyst.   

Some support may come later in the day as Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Indian economy is the fastest in the world to come out of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, said the analyst. 

Technical range 

"Our research suggests that the levels of 17,000 may act as an important support in the market. If the market breaks the support levels of 17000, we can expect it to trade till the range of 16900-16750," he added. 

The Sensex rose marginally by 75.35 points to 57,771.81 in the pre-open session even as 22 shares advanced and 8 declined on the index on Monday.  

Earlier, the SGX Nifty Futures hinted at flat to negative opening for the Indian markets as the index traded lower by 17 points in the early morning trade.  

Asian markets also traded in the negative on Monday.  Japanese Nikkei 225 was down over 207 points, Hang Seng Index plunged 1.50% and Shanghai Composite slipped 0.07% in the morning trade around 7.15 am on Monday. On the Wall Street, the Dow Jones closed 59.71 points down to 34,580.08, Nasdaq Composite ended 1.92% lower or 295.85 points to 15,085.47 and S&P 500 also settled 0.84% down to 4,538.43 on Friday's closing.