Opening Bell - Markets open flat on a cautious note; ITC up by 2.69%

At 9:15 AM, the BSE Sensex opened higher by 26.19 points at 28167.83, while the Nifty50 opened higher by 8.35 points at the 8724.75 mark.

There are 766 advances, 570 declines and 411 unchanged stocks on NSE at the morning hours on Thursday’s trading session reflecting positive bias floating in the market.

The rupee opened at 67.44 per dollar.

The stocks of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Timken India, Godfrey Philips, HCC, AstraZeneca, Dr Lal Pathlabs, Marico and Godrej Properties will be in focus as they will report their Q3 earnings.

Indian equities staged a scintillating rally after the presentation of FY-18 budget on February 1. The rally was the biggest in the history of last twelve years. As Finance Minister Arun Jaitely concluded the Budget speech, market realised that no major changes were proposed in the capital market tax reform as was feared by the market participants. Nifty rallied from the day’s low level to close above the 8700-mark.