Sensex down 82.56 points at 40165.67; M&M, Sun Pharma, Coal India top gainers

The benchmark equity indices, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, opened marginally lower on Wednesday. The Sensex is down 82.56 points or 0.21 per cent at 40165.67, while the Nifty is down 30.80 points at 11886.40. The top gainer stocks include Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma and Coal India, while Titan Company, HCL Tech and Tata Steel are the top losers.

On Tuesday, equity indices witnessed a choppy trading session during afternoon and ended in the negative terrain led by losses in pharma and banking stocks. The BSE Sensex closed 54 points lower at 40,248 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 24 points to 11,917. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative zone except for Nifty FMCG. Nifty media was down by 1.4 per cent, pharma by 1.1 per cent and PSU bank by 0.8 per cent. 

On global front today, Asian shares were little changed as investors awaited new developments toward scaling back a bruising trade war between the United States and China. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was unchanged. Australian shares were up 0.14%, while Japan`s Nikkei stock index rose 0.35%, said a Reuters report.

Treasury yields fell slightly in Asia and crude oil futures also dipped as some investors started to temper their optimism about progress in the trade dispute in the absence of concrete progress in negotiations between the world`s two-largest economies.

The dollar held onto overnight gains against the yen and the euro after better-than-expected data on the US services sector, but some analysts warn it will be difficult to shake lingering concern about the global economic outlook.

Since the United States and China have signalled they are pushing hard to reach a preliminary "phase one" trade agreement, possibly some time this month, traders and investors hope this will roll back at least some of the punitive tariffs that Washington and Beijing have imposed on each other`s goods. However, it is still uncertain when or where US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign the agreement.

Meanwhile, a jump in oil prices overnight also faded in Asian trading. US crude fell 0.35% to $57.03 per barrel. 

In the currency market, the dollar continued to benefit from the positive ISM data. The dollar, which traded at 109.16 yen, close to its highest since August 1. The greenback also traded at $1.1075 per euro , approaching its highest level since October 16, Reuters added.