The Indian equity indices opened higher on Thursday but soon turned negative negative, dragged by selling in midcaps and financials.

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The BSE Sensex started at 36,692, jumping nearly 150 points in the opening tick, while the NSE Nifty50 opened at 11,080, up by 26 points. At 9.20am, the Sensex slipped to 36.564, marginally up by 22 points, while the Nifty dipped to 11,053, down by 0.85 points.

BSE LargeCap gained in early trade, rising by nearly 0.40 percent, but midcaps were flat. The BSE MidCap was up 0.05 percent, while the Nifty MidCap was in red, marginally down by 0.03 percent. The BSE SmallCap also traded flat at 0.09 percent.

Only two out of 19 BSE sectoral indices traded negative viz, realty and finance, while others were mostly flat or marginally higher. Basic materials and utilities moved higher by up to 0.91 percent, while metal, oil & gas and power were up by nearly half a percent.

NSE sectoral indices traded mixed with fin service, FMCG, pharma and realty in the red. PSU Bank surged the most by 0.80 percent, while metal and IT were other major gainers. Nifty Bank was marginally up by 0.11 percent at 25,404.

Among stocks, Gail, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Vedanta, Titan, Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors were among top gainers, surging by up to nearly 3 percent. Vodafone Idea, Bajaj Finance, Dr Reddy's Labs, HDFC, HPCL, Maruti Suzuki, Yes Bank, ITC, M&M, moved lower by up to 1.33 percent.

The currency market responded well to the government's measures to raise import tariffs to contain current account deficit. The Indian rupee opened higher at 72.42 against the US dollar on Thursday. On Wednesday, the home currency had closed at 72.60 against the greenback.

Asian markets were mixed after a green start. South Korea's Kospi was higher by nearly 0.40 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped over half a percent. Japan's Nikkei was low by nearly a percent.

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