By IANS,
Mumbai : Heavy selling pressure forced the Indian equities market into negative territory in early trading Monday after it had opened in the green mirroring strong markets elsewhere in Asia. Soon after the opening here, all sectoral indices except public sector undertakings and metals slipped into the red.
The Sensex, the 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), opened with a gain 145.58 points at 17,251.56.
But ten minutes into trading, it had moved down to 17,063.08, a loss of 62.90 points or 0.37 points from its Friday close.
At the same time, the S&P Nifty of National Stock Exchange was trading at 5,098.55 points with a marginal loss of 13 compared to its previous close.
However, the market breadth was positive. On BSE, 808 scrips advanced, 459 declined and 33 remained unchanged.
Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and ICICI bank were among the early gainers while Wipro, Infosys Technologies and BHEL were among the losers in initial trade.
Other Asian markets were trading firm. Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.75 percent or 104.63 points at 13,968.10. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.70 percent or 177.89 points at 25,694.67. Taiwan’s Taiwan Weighted rose 0.41 percent or 36.87 points at 8,984.70. Singapore’s Straits Times was up 0.62 percent or 19.71 points at 3,208.91. South Korea’s Seoul Composite added 0.19 percent or 3.40 points at 1,828.08.