Erasing yesterday’s gains, the 30-share barometer index Sensex has opened in the negative zone, primarily due to weak Asian cues.

At 9:35AM, BSE SENSEX was trading at 18662.33, 0.51 per cent and the NSE’s wide-based Nifty was trading at 5692.25, down by 0.23 per cent.

The BSE MIDCAP was trading at 6656.95, down by 0.03 per cent, while the BSE SMLCAP was trading at 7164.4, up by 0.04 per cent.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 871.00,+1.57%), ICICI Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1094.10,+0.73%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 566.30,+0.44%), NTPC Ltd. (Rs. 170.25,+0.15%), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 1368.35,+0.11%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. (Rs. 381.00,-1.58%), ITC Ltd. (Rs. 288.30,-1.20%), Reliance Industries Ltd. (Rs. 801.55,-1.08%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 266.55,-1.06%), Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (Rs. 1820.00,-0.99%), among others.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE, out of total 1485 shares traded, 673 shares advanced, 739 shares declined and 73 remained unchanged.

The BSE benchmark Sensex today fell by over 75 points in opening trade due to profit-booking at higher levels amid a weakening trend on other Asian bourses.

The 30-share index, which had gained 48.61 points yesterday, fell by 75.07 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 18,683.56, with stocks of oil and gas, IT and banking sectors succumbing to profit-booking.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty Index moved down by 23.20 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 5,682.10.

Brokers said apart from profit-booking by investors after yesterday’s gains, a weak trend in the Asian region ahead of US economic growth figures to be released later in the day, mainly led to a fall in stock prices.

Meanwhile in the Asian region, Japan’s Nikkei was down by 0.89 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.79 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.20 per cent higher in yesterday’s trade.

GLOBAL MARKETS ROUNDUP

Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange fell 0.55 percent. The MSCI-Asia Pacific index excluding Japan is down 0.48 percent.

U.S. stocks eked out small gains on Thursday in another uninspiring session on Wall Street, with worries about weak business spending keeping investors wary.

Asian shares edged lower on Friday as investors kept a wary eye on corporate earnings results under way.