Mumbai, July 21 (IANS) The Indian equity market opened almost flat on Monday amid mixed cues from global markets, as investors continue to look for some positive news on the interim India-US trade deal.

At 9:20 am, Sensex was down 50 points or 0.05 per cent at 81,714 and Nifty was down 17 points or 0.07 per cent at 24,951.

Marginal selling was also seen in midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index was down 87 points or 0.15 per cent at 59,017 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was down 65 points or 0.36 per cent at 18,892.

According to analysts, the single-most important factor which the market will be focusing on in the coming days will be the outcome of the trade talks between the US and India.

“If an interim trade deal between the two countries is reached with a tariff rate of less than 20 per cent on India, that would be a positive from the market perspective,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd.

On the sectoral front, auto, IT, PSU bank, pharma, FMCG, media, energy, infra, consumption and PSE were major losers, while financial services, metal and realty were trading in the green.

In the Sensex pack, Axis Bank, Reliance, Infosys, HCL tech, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Sun Pharma, Titan, M&M, HUL, Asian Paints, NTPC, Tata Motors and BEL were losers. Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Eternal, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance and Trent were major gainers.

Most Asian markets were trading with gains. Shanghai, HongKong, Seoul, Bangkok and Jakarta were in the green, while Tokyo was trading in the red. US markets closed in mixed zone. Main indices Dow Jones was down 0.32 per cent and Nasdaq was up 0.05 per cent.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers on July 18 with purchases worth Rs 374.74 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued their tenth session of buying, with net purchases worth Rs 2,103.51 crore.

Considering the current environment of elevated volatility and mixed global cues, traders should maintain a cautious sell-on-rise strategy, especially when using leverage, said Mandar Bhojane from Choice Equity Broking Private Limited.

—IANS

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