Markets in red, Sensex opens below 9000

Mumbai: The markets have retreated after Friday's sharp upmove. Asian markets are trading weak. Realty, banking, technology, oil, and select telecom stocks are under pressure.

At 0956 hrs IST, the Sensex went down 136 points to 8,778 and the Nifty fell 27 points to 2,666. CNX Midcap 100 lost 9.55 points to 3,288.

HDFC Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, DLF, Reliance Communication, ONGC, Reliance Petroleum, Sterlite Industries, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Satyam, Suzlon Energy, Reliance Industries, Tata Communication and Unitech are losers.

However, Hero Honda, Idea Cellular and M&M are gainers.

Asian markets are weak. Shanghai, Straits Times, Kospi, Taiwan and Jakarta fell 1.5-2.3%. Hang Seng went down 0.9%. Japanese markets are shut today.

Crude regained $50 to a barrel ahead of OPEC meet.

It is currently trading at USD 50.60/bbl. Slowing demand has added one million barrels per day of oversupply. US oil inventories also stood at 6 month highs.

US markets surged in late trade on Friday. The S&P 500 index rebounded from an 11-year low, Dow moved back above the 8,000 mark after President elect Barack Obama has picked Timothy Geithner head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, for the post of treasury secretary.

At closing bell, the Dow Jones ended up 494 points at 8046.42, Nasdaq ended up 68.2 points at 1384.35 while the S&P was up 47.5 points at 800.

Market cues:

Most Asian markets open lower; US markets saw huge rally on Friday

FIIs net sell USD 162.6 million in equity on November 20

MFs net sell Rs 98.7 crore in equity November 20

NSE F&O Open Int up by Rs 4,208 crore at Rs 52,499 crore

F&O cues:

Stock Futures add 4 crore shares in Open Int

Traded volume at Rs 47,696 cr versus Rs. 37,984 cr in previous trading session

Futures Open Int up by Rs 2,121 crore, Options Open Int up by Rs 2,088 crore

Nifty Nov Futures shed 6.7 lakh, Dec Futures add 14.7 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty Nov at 12-pt premium, Dec at 9-pt premium

Nifty Open Int Put-Call ratio at 0.87 versus 0.85

Nifty Puts add 20 lakh, Calls add 12.5 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 2600 Put adds 6.2 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 2500 Put adds 5 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 2700 Call adds 2.7 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 2900 Call adds 2.5 lakh shares in Open Int