Stock Indices Open Lower, Nifty Falls Below 18,100

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined in early trade on Wednesday due to selling in financials, oil and IT stocks amid weak global trends.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 268 points or 0.44 per cent to 60,709.93 as 24 of its constituents declined. The index opened lower at 60,834.73 and dropped further to a low of 60,693.39 in early trade.

The broader Nifty of NSE declined by 90.25 points or 0.5 per cent to 18,028.05 as 39 of its scrips traded in the red. The index opened lower at 18,093.35.

Among Sensex shares, Ultratech Cement, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, L&T, Reliance Industries,Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys and TCS were the major losers.

Tata Steel, HUL and Maruti were trading higher.

"The 18,200 Nifty has become a major resistance level which is keeping the Nifty in the narrow band of 17,800-18,200. Two major events of the Union Budget and the Fed decision on interest rate on February 1 have the potential to break this narrow range," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Meanwhile, the US dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, slipped 0.04 per cent to 101.88.

The Brent crude was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 86.48 per barrel while the oil for Indian basket traded down 2.69 per cent at USD 79.98 per barrel.

Wall Street's major stock indexes closed mixed on Tuesday ahead of the Fed rate decision. The S&P 500 edged lower 0.1 per cent, Nasdaq composite fell 0.3 per cent while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 per cent.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market on Tuesday as they sold shares worth Rs 760.51 crore, according to exchange data.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)