Markets open marginally lower on weak global cues

New Delhi: Markets opened on a negative note on Monday on weak global cues.

The BSE Sensex fell 154.29 points or 0.42 percent to 36,392.19 in early trade while the NSE Nifty dropped 57.15 points or 0.52 percent to 10,886.45.

Except for IT stocks on the BSE, all the others sectors traded lower. Oil and gas, capital goods and auto stocks lost over 1 percent.

The laggards were Hero MotoCorp, M&M, ONGC, Vedanta, Coal India, Yes Bank, L&T, ICICI Bank, Asian paint, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, ITC, RIL, HUL, IndusBank, SBI, Axis Bank, PowerGrid and Sun Pharma, dropping up to 2.98 percent.

However, Tata Steel, Kotak Bank, Infosys, TCS, HDFC, HDFC Bank and HCL Tech were trading higher on scattered buying by investors.

Rising for the fifth straight day, the rupee firmed up by another 9 paise to 71.22 against the dollar in opening trade.

Asian shares started the week on the backfoot as investors were unable to shake off worries about global growth, a Reuters report said.

Chinese shares see-sawed on Monday after they resumed trading following a week-long Lunar New Year holiday. The blue-chip index was last up 0.4 percent, Australian stocks were down 0.6 percent while South Korea eased 0.2 percent. That left MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off 0.1 percent after it was toppled from a four-month top on Friday.

With Agency Inputs