Mumbai, July 16
The Indian equity indices opened in the red on Wednesday due to mixed cues from global markets.
At 9:26 am, Sensex was down 141 points or 0.17 per cent at 82,429 and Nifty was down 57 points or 0.23 per cent at 25,138.
Midcap and smallcap indices were trading in the green with marginal gains. Nifty midcap 100 index was up 23 points to 59,636 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was up 15 points to 19,150.
“The market has been oscillating in a narrow range during the last two months. A breakout above the upper band of the range, well beyond Nifty 25,500, needs positive triggers," said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.
Such a trigger may come from an India-US trade deal with tariffs on India pegged at around 20 per cent.
“If this happens, can it trigger a sustained rally in the market? Unlikely. A sustained rally in the market needs earnings support,” he added.
On the sectoral front, IT, PSU Bank, FMCG, realty, media and PSE were major gainers in the morning trade. Auto, financial services, pharma, metal and energy were major losers.
In the Sensex pack, Adani Ports, Trent, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank, SBI, Infosys, ITC, HCL Tech and BEL were major gainers. M&M, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Eternal, TCS and Ultratech Cement were major losers.