Sensex slides 290 pts at open, Nify below 17,750; IT stocks top drag

Domestic equities opened lower Wednesday tracking global markets as key indices Sensex and Nifty were down over 0.40 per cent.

BSE benchmark Sensex opened at 60,382.37, 290.35 points or 0.48 per cent lower, while NSE Nifty50 opened at 17,757.75, 68.95 points, or 0.39 per cent lower.

Broader markets also declined at open, as only India Vix gained 0.80 per cent to trade 14.12 points. Nifty Next 50 declined around 0.70 per cent, followed by Nifty Smallcap 50 at 0.44 per cent.

Except for Sun Pharma, all index stocks in the Sensex pack at 9.20 am were trading in red, with Wipro, Ultra Cement, Tech Mahindra, HCLTech being the top drag.

IT stocks were the worst performers in the morning trade as the sector was down 1 per cent, followed by PSU Bank and oil and gas stocks at 0.66 and 0.64 per cent, respectively.

Adani Enterprises was among the top loser at the open, down 2.57 per cent, followed by Wipro and BPCL at over 1.1 per cent. Eicher Motors and Ultra Cement were also down by over 1 per cent.

Meanwhile, the top gainers in the opening trade were Britannia, Coal India, and Tata Consumer.

In Adani group stocks, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission were locked 5 per cent down in lower circuit, while Adani Enterprises was down 4 per cent by 9.30 am.