Mumbai, July 10 (IANS) The Indian benchmark indices opened flat on Thursday amid mixed global cues as selling was seen in the auto and IT sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.29 am, Sensex was trading 40.96 points or 0.05 per cent down at 83,495.12 while the Nifty declined 17.70 points or 0.07 per cent at 25,458.40.

Nifty Bank was up 29.50 points or 0.05 per cent at 57,243.05 in early trade. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 59,448 after adding 108.40 points or 0.18 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,057.75 after adding 50.35 points or 0.26 per cent.

According to analysts, with trade and tariff news feeling more routine these days, the market is bracing for the start of earnings season.

“The big banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, start reporting next Tuesday. As of now, analysts expect 5.8 per cent earnings growth for the S&P 500 in the second quarter,” said Vikram Kasat, Head-Advisory, PL Capital.

Expectations from the IT sector are limited. However, midcap IT is likely to post good results and positive commentary, said experts.

“Banks, despite strong balance sheets and abundant liquidity, are struggling with low credit growth. Outperformers in the banking segment will be those who post good credit growth. In autos, M&M and Eicher have the potential to outperform,” they added.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, M&M, ICICI Bank and Titan were the top gainers. Whereas, Tata Motors, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Asian Paints, NTPC and HDFC Bank were the top losers.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of equities worth Rs 77 crore on July 9, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were also net buyers, investing Rs 920 crore on the same day.

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

In the last trading session, Dow Jones in the US closed at 44,458.30, up 217.54 points, or 0.49 per cent. The S&P 500 ended with a gain of 37.74 points, or 0.61 per cent at 6,263.26 and the Nasdaq closed at 20,611.34, up 192.87 points, or 0.94 per cent.

–IANS

skt/na