By IANS
Mumbai : The Indian equities market Wednesday opened flat on weak cues from the global markets. The negative rally was led by banking stocks which saw heavy selling in the early trade.
The 30 share benchmark sensitive index of Bombay Stock Exchange, Sensex, opened with a minimal loss of 9.98 points at 16,328.91. Twenty minutes into trade, Sensex was trading at 16,409.74 with a gain of nearly 80 points compared to its previous close.
At the same time, the S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was up by nearly 10 percent at 4,874.25 points from its previous close.
The market breadth was extremely weak with low volumes. In the initial trade, 412 scrips advanced, 886 declined and 26 remained unchanged.
Asian markets were trading lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plunged 0.50 percent or 116.74 points at 23,003.13. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.21 percent or 27.87 points at 12,964.41. Taiwan’s Taiwan Weighted was flat at 8,462.57. Singapore’s Straits Times was down 0.42 percent or 12.38 points at 2,907.30. South Korea’s Seoul Composite declined 0.25 percent or 4.18 points at 1,672.
Satyam computer, NTPC and Wipro Ltd were among the gainers at initial trade. ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Ranbaxy Lab were among the top laggards on the indices.
ICICI Bank, which went down by nearly 6 percent Tuesday on reports that the bank has incurred losses in the overseas market to the tune of $264 million due to sub prime, started the trading at Bombay Stock Exchange at Rs.952.20, down by Rs.33.40 compared to its last close.