Benchmark indices opened slightly down Tuesday, as investors are awaiting fresh triggers before firming up their view. The Sensex has gained nearly 1000 points in the last six sessions, and brokers said some amount of profit booking was inevitable.

The BSE Sensex was down 32 points at 19137, and the Nifty was down 15 points at 5819. Share markets of IT and metal companies were firm, while those from the banking, capital goods and FMCG sectors were sluggish.

Jet Air, Muthoot Finance, M&M Financial Services and MCX were among the key gainers in early trade, up between 2-3 percent. Among laggards, Bharti Infratel, Eicher Motors, IndusInd Bank, Tata Communications and Unitech were down between 2-3 percent.

Jitendra Sriram of HSBC feels foreign institutional investors will wait for further cues before increasing their exposure to India. Dalton Capital head UR Bhat’s is also of the similar view that FIIs were unlikely to increase their fund allocation to emerging markets like India. HSBC expects the Sensex around 20,700 at the end of this calendar. Bhat sees the Nifty trading in the 5500-5900 band near term.