Sensex opens with tepid trade, tracking weak global cues

MUMBAI: The key indices of domestic markets opened with losses for the third session this week as financial stocks dragged. Indices were trading tepid in the morning, tracking weak global cues.

BSE Sensex lost 79 points to 59,647.56 and NSE Nifty dropped 25 points to 17,634.95. Some of the top gainers on Nifty 50 were Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Eicher Motors, Hindalco and Larsen & Toubro while the laggards were ONGC, Hindustan Unilever, Apollo Hospital, Infosys and Asian Paints.

In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei lost 91 points, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 130 points and China's Shanghai was trading in the negative territory on Wednesday morning.

In US markets, Dow Jones dipped 10 points, Nasdaq and NYSE and S&P were trading in the positive territory when the stock exchanges closed on Tuesday.

In European markets, BEL, CAC, and Deutsche were trading in the positive territory, FTSE 100 gained 29 points and Madrid SE was also trading in the positive territory.

"In the results expected this week, the best performance is likely to come from ICICI Bank. HCL Tech is unlikely to disappoint like Infosys. RIL's results will be good but unlikely to surprise the market. Investors should closely watch the results that surprise on the upside along with positive management commentary. Such stocks will remain resilient even in a weak market," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

On BSE, Bank of India shares went up 1.51 per cent to Rs 81.99. The lender's board of directors had approved to raise capital up to Rs 6,500 crore for 2023-24 (FY24).

In another development, shares of Piramal Pharma surged 7.71 per cent to Rs 77.40 after the US regulator -- FDA -- completed its inspection of Piramal Pharma's manufacturing facility located at Sellersville in the US.