By IANS
Mumbai : The Indian equities market opened with a negative gap Wednesday and continued its downslide.
The 30-share benchmark sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex, opened with a loss of 74.02 points at 15,512.70. Ten minutes into trading, the Sensex was further down to 15,506.39, a loss of 81.23 points or 0.52 percent from its close Tuesday.
At the same time, the S&P Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange was trading at 4,691.00 points with a loss of 18.65 points compared to its previous close.
However, the market breadth was positive though with extremely low volumes; 662 scrips advanced, 571 declined and 26 maintained the status quo during initial trade.
L&T, Ranbaxy labs and Tata Steel were among the gainers while Grasim Industries, Satyam computers and Maruti Suzuki were among the top market laggards early Wednesday.
Other Asian markets were trading mixed. Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.04 percent or 5.15 points at 13,245.28. South Korea’s Seoul Composite fell 1.06 percent or 18.85 points at 1,754.71.
However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.33 percent or 80.45 points at 24,392.14. Taiwan’s Taiwan Weighted rose 1 percent or 86.46 points at 8,759.31. Singapore’s Straits Times advanced 0.31 percent or 9.85 points at 3,140.27.