Sensex opens negative at 18,874.71, down by 63 points

Mumbai, Jul 15 : The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex today opened at 17,874.71 points, with a loss of 63.45 points, as compared to its previous close of 17,938.16, on profit booking at higher levels from local operators.

While, the Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) opened steady at 5,387.10 points before easing by nominal 4.45 points to 5,381.70 pts.

Scrips of auto, realty, capital goods and PSU companies were under pressure. TCS, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ONGC, Bharti, NTPC, SBI, Wipro, Reliance Communications and Cipla were the losers. While, Tata Steel, ACC, Hindustan Unilver, RIL and ICICI Bank were gainers in the opening trade, brokers said.

Even the Asian markets were trading with negative bias.

The heavyweight shares that fell were HDFC by 1.35 per cent to Rs 3,036, DLF by 1.32 per cent to Rs 314.85, BHEL by 1.19 per cent to Rs 2,434.90, HDFC Bank by 1.02 per cent to Rs 2,067, Maruti Suzuki by 0.92 per cent to Rs 1,381.35 and Reliance Comm by 0.86 per cent to Rs 184.80.

Howerver, the gaienrs were Tata Steel by 1.37 per cent to Rs 512.80, ACC by 1.35 per cent to Rs 816, Hindustan Unilever by 1.30 per cent to Rs 261, Tata Power by 0.66 per cent to Rs 1,334.95.