Indian stock market opens in red amid weak Asian cues, IT stocks drag

Mumbai, May 27 (IANS) The Indian benchmark indices opened lower on Tuesday amid weak Asian cues, as selling was seen in the IT, auto, financial services and pharma sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.28 am, Sensex was trading 747.69 points or 0.91 per cent down at 81,428.76 while the Nifty declined 204.10 point or 0.82 per cent at 24,797.05.

Nifty Bank was down 366.95 points or 0.66 per cent at 55,205.05 The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 57,062.60 after dropping 4.65 points or 0.01 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 17,744.40 after climbing 36.60 points or 0.21 per cent.

According to analysts, technically, the Nifty appears to have regained its momentum, decisively breaking out from its consolidation zone of 24,500-25,000.

"Immediate resistance is now seen at 25,207, derived from the 76.4 per cent Fibonacci retracement of the entire fall from 26,277 to 21,743. On the downside, 24,800 could offer immediate support for the Nifty," said Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities.

A significant feature of the SIP flows during this phase of the market is that investors are staying invested for longer time periods than in the past. This will provide support to the market, said experts.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, NTPC, M&M, HCL Tech, Eternal, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS were the top losers. Only IndusInd Bank was the top gainer.

In the Asian markets, Bangkok, Seoul, China, Hong Kong and Japan were trading in the red. Only Jakarta was trading in the green.

The US stock markets were closed on Monday in honour of Memorial Day. In the last trading session on Friday, Dow Jones in the US closed at 41,603.07, down 256.02 points, or 0.61 per cent. The S&P 500 ended with a loss of 39.19 points, or 0.67 per cent, at 5,802.82 and the Nasdaq closed at 18,737.21, down 188.53 points, or 1.00 per cent.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers as they bought equities worth 135.98 crore on May 26, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased equities worth 1,745.72 crore.