FIRST TRADE: Sensex opens 200 pts higher, Nifty up at 24,212

Indian equtiies after a continuous fall for the past three sessions opened in the green on Tuesday (November 12) as the markets awaited the key CPI print due to be released later today. At the open, Nifty was up0.3 per cent or 71.25 points at 24,212.55, while the Sensex was up 0.25 per cent or 202.63 at 79,698.78.

Bank Nifty also was charged up led by stocks including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI among others. 

Broader markets, meanwhile, are outperforming the headline indices with the Nifty Smallcap up around 0.7 per cent at the last count.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services taking note of the current market dynamics said, "Two strong factors have been at play in this consolidating market. One, the relentless selling by FIIs has been favouring the bears and pulling the market down. Two, the sustained buying by DIIs has been supporting the market preventing a crash in the market. How the market will trend in the coming days will depend on the relative strength of these two factors."

In this context, it is important to note that the intensity of FII selling is coming down (yesterday FII selling was Rs 2026 crores) and the inflows into mutual funds is steadily increasing which will enable DIIs to continue buying. Monthly flows into equity mutual funds have touched an all-time high of Rs 41887 crores in October clocking a 22% month-on-month increase. This can provide resilience to the market and fundamentally strong fairly valued stocks like the leading banking names will outperform."
 

Stocks in focus

ICICI Bank shares were up as much as over 1 per cent after brokerage firm Morgan Stanley continued with its bullish stance on the counter and sees up to 30 per cent potential upside.

ONGC post its good Q2 results tumbled in trade today. However the stock was dragged by as much as 2 per cent.

Asian markets 

Most Asian markets continued to trade lower with the Hong Kong's Hang Seng down over 1 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific ex Japan index traded lower by over 1 per cent at 589.65.