Markets open in red; Sensex slips below 36,500, Nifty below 10,800

New Delhi: Markets opened marginally in the red on Wednesday amidst heavy selling in financial and auto stocks.

The BSE Sensex fell 72.88 points or 0.20 percent to 36,490.03 in early trade while the NSE Nifty dropped 10.30 points or 0.095 percent to 10,787.60.

Top losers in the Sensex pack in early trade on Tuesday included Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, ONGC, HDFC, M&M, NTPC, Vedanta, ITC and SBI, which fell up to 4 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net of Rs 1,162.95 crore, while domestic institutional investors purchased shares worth Rs 1,502.27 crore, provisional data showed.

Markets were closed on Monday on account of 'Ganesh Chaturthi'. In the previous session on Friday, the BSE Sensex jumped 263.86 points or 0.71 percent at 37,332.79 while the Nifty rose 74.95 points or 0.68 percent to close at 11,023.25. 

Among Asian peers The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.45% while the blue-chip CSI300 index gained 0.5%. MSCI`s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan snapped two days of losses and gained 0.5%. Australian stocks lost 0.75% and Japan`s Nikkei was little changed, a Reuters report said.

With Agency Inputs