Opening Bell: Markets open lower on mixed global cues; power and utilities sectors take the lead

On the sectoral front, indices were trading with mixed cues where BSE Power and BSE Utilities indices showed strength, advancing 2.78 per cent & 2.58 per cent, respectively.

On Thursday, the Indian benchmark indices started the session in red with Nifty slipping below 17,800 due to weak global cues. 

BSE Sensex was down by 300.99 points or 0.50 per cent at 59,309.42 level while NSE Nifty 50 plunged 73.70 points or 0.41 per cent at 17,734. Bank Nifty dropped 192 points or 0.5 per cent to the 37,439 level. India VIX was up by 0.16 per cent, trading at 19.05 in the initial hour of the trading session. 

Cipla, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Divi’s Labs & Eicher Motors were among the major gainers on Nifty while losers comprised ONGC, HDFC Bank, IOC, HDFC, and Wipro. On Sensex, the leading stocks were Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Dr Reddy's Laboratories & HUL while the top draggers were HDFC twins, Wipro, TCS, Infosys, and Titan.  

In the broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices traded in the green, up to 0.5 per cent each. At 9.47 am, in BSE Midcap index, the top gaining stocks were Yes Bank, Bharat Electronics, Adani Power, Hindustan Aeronautics, and Ruchi Soya whereas, in BSE Smallcap index, BLS International, Shree Renuka Sugars, Solara Active Pharma & OnMobile Global were the top gainers. 

On the sectoral front, indices were trading with mixed cues where BSE Power and BSE Utilities indices showed strength, advancing 2.78 per cent & 2.58 per cent, respectively. The top power stocks included Adani Transmission, Adani Power, Adani Green, BHEL, and Tata Power.