Opening Bell: Nifty, Sensex open flat; Auto top gainer, energy stocks worst hit

After weak closing on Wednesday, the Indian market opened in the green with marginal gains on Thursday. Benchmarks Nifty50 and Sensex opened near their previous closings as the former opened at 15,451.55 and the latter started at 51,972.75 on Thursday. 

Following benchmark indices, Nifty midcap and smallcap gained marginally by 0.10% and 0.2% respectively 

On the sectoral front, Nifty Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Realty, PSU Bank and Metal declined, while all other indices opened with minor gains. 

In the pre-open, around 9.05 am, the Sensex was trading higher by 150 points as 27 stocks advanced, two declined and one remained neutral on the 30-share index.  

"With every passing day, the probability of the US economy falling into recession is increasing. This will keep the markets weak till there are indications of inflation cooling, enabling the Fed to go a bit slow on raising rates, said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. 

Such a scenario will emerge only if there is a big dip in crude prices, the expert pointed.  
 
Since the Nifty has clearly broken the lower band of 15800- 16800 in which it was trading for some time, the structure of the market has become weak, said Vijayakumar.  

He said that relentless selling by FPIs and expectations of further selling have created a trade set-up, where every rally will be sold into.  

"The only sensible investment strategy in this complex and uncertain time is to buy high-quality stocks on dips and wait with patience. Apart from financials, which look good, IT gaining from rupee depreciation and select autos, gaining due to metal price crash, are good buys for long-term investment," the expert advised.  

Earlier, the cues from Asian markets remained mixed on Thursday.  

SGX Nifty, which indicates opening trends for the Indian market, was trading flat with positive bias as the Futures index gained around 20 points in the morning trade on the Singaporean exchange on Thursday.  

Besides, Japanese Nikkie was trading flat as well, while Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange gained 0.6% and Chinese Shanghai Composite traded higher by 0.3% in the early trade on Thursday.  

Earlier, in the US market, all major indices closed in the red. Dow Jones declined 0.12%, Nasdaq closed with 0.15% cuts and S&P 500 dropped 0.13% on Wednesday.