Indian stock market opens flat, Sensex above 76,700

Mumbai, April 16 (IANS) The domestic benchmark indices opened flat on Wednesday amid weak global cues, as selling was seen in the IT and auto sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.29 am, Sensex was trading 23.12 points or 0.03 per cent up at 76,758.01 while the Nifty added 5.90 points or 0.03 per cent at 23,334.45.

Nifty Bank was up 258.05 points or 0.49 per cent at 52,637.55. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 52,148.35 after adding 173.90 points or 0.33 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 16,284.80 after climbing 105.50 points or 0.65 per cent.

According to market watchers, technically, the Nifty has decisively reclaimed levels above its 20, 50, and 100-day moving averages, a clearly encouraging sign for the bulls.

“Looking ahead, the next significant resistance level for the Nifty appears to be around 23869, which coincides with the previous swing high. On the downside, the 22900-23000 zone is likely to provide immediate support for the index,” said Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities.

Meanwhile, In the Sensex pack, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and Sun Pharma were the top losers. While, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were the top gainers.

In the last trading session, Dow Jones in the US declined 0.38 per cent to close at 40,368.96. The S&P 500 declined 0.17 per cent to 5,396.63 and the Nasdaq declined 0.05 per cent to close at 16,823.17.

"US stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday as tariff uncertainty remained high, shares of consumer and healthcare companies eased, and upbeat bank results provided some support, said experts.

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

After remaining net sellers for the last nine days, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers on April 15 as they purchased equities worth Rs 6,065.78 crore. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) turned net sellers after three days, as they sold equities of Rs 1,951.60 crore on the same day.

--IANS

skt/na