Markets have a quiet start; Nifty hovers at 8,775

The markets are listless in early trades despite the encouraging industrial output in February and the positive trends across the Asian bourses.

At 9:40AM, the Sensex is quoting at 28,881, up two points and the Nifty is at 8775, down five points.

In the IIP numbers announced post market hours on Friday, the industrial growth jumped to a three-month high of 5% in February from 2.8% in January, with strong performances in almost every segment, barring consumer durables and intermediate goods. February was only the third month in 2014-15 to have recorded industrial growth of five per cent or more.

Among Asian peers, the Chinese and Hong Kong markets are having a good session of trade.

Markets had registered gains last week after global rating agency Moody’s raised India’s credit outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’, anticipating policymakers' actions will lift India’s economic growth.

The rupee has opened flat at 62.33 per dollar on Monday against 62.31 on Friday.

Global Markets

The Chinese markets are leading gains to touch fresh seven-year highs early Monday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index has jumped 0.4% to its highest level since January 2008 and South Korea's Kospi index has hit its highest level since August 2014. On the other hand, Japan's Nikkei is struggling to find momentum shy of the key 20,000 mark.

The major US share indices ended with marginal gains with General Electric leading the gains on Wall Street after the global major announced plans to divest GE Capital business and also buyback of shares upto $50 billion. The Dow Jone gained 0.6% to end above 18,000 at 18,057.65, the tech-laden Nasdaq gained 0.4% at 4,995.98 and the broader S&P 500 ended up 0.5% at 2,102.06.