Resilient Indian equities markets in green despite terror attacks (Lead)

As analysts had expected, Indian equities markets showed no panic or knee-jerk reaction to the terrorist attack on the country's financial capital here and although a key index opened lower it was soon in the green as traders were not taking strong positions either way 20 minutes into trading.

Some 20 minutes into trading, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was ruling at 9,042.80, up 16.08 points, or 0.18 percent from its previous close at 9,026.72 points.

The Sensex opened lower at 8,889.18 and despite some volatility was clearly displaying the same resilience that Indian equities markets have always shown after terror attacks to move up to a high of 9,078.93 points, slipped a tad into red only to climb up again into positive territory.

The broader-based 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), also showed a similar trend and was ruling at 2757.40, up 5.15 points or 0.19 percent from its previous close at 2752.25 points.

The BSE midcap was, however, ruling at 2,847.67, down 29.71 points or 1.03 percent from its previous close at 2,877.38 points.

The BSE smallcap too was in the red and was ruling at 3,291.65, down 23.24 points or 0.70 percent from its previous close at 3,333.42 points.

Markets reopened Friday at the normal time but under 'Z' category security - usually reserved for VVIPs - after remaining closed Thursday following the unprecedented terror attack on the country's financial capital and capital of western India state of Maharashtra.

State Chief Minister Vilasrao Desmukh had, however, expressed dissatisfaction Thursday that market authorities and the market regulator had decided to keep markets closed Thursday. Terror should not be allowed to disrupt business, was his view.

As markets were closed Thursday, the monthly settlement of futures and options trade had to be deferred to Friday.

This also had a bearing on keeping the markets open Friday as two consecutive days of closure would have further eroded investor confidence and almost surely would have sent the markets into a tailspin when it opened Monday, analysts said.

"This would have been unfair to those holding long positions as they would then have run up huge losses while those holding short positions would have made unfair profits," Jagannadham Thunuguntla, director of India's fourth largest share brokerage firm, the Delhi-based SMC Group.

Overnight global clues were positive with a key index of the New York Stock Exchange finishing 3.2 percent higher Thursday and the Nasdaq index too ended 4.6 percent higher.

Asian markets too were showing gains Friday morning with the Nikkei, the key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, up 0.48 percent while the Hang Seng, key index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, up 2.49 percent.

Although there will be selling at higher levels and markets may show some volatility, trading will continue to be range bound as there has been no change in the fundamentals, analysts said.

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