The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, opened on a positive note on Monday. However, soon after the domestic indices erased their opening gains amid mixed global cues and volatility.
At 9.35 am, the BSE Sensex was down 63 points to 58,928. On the other hand, NSE Nifty was trading at 17,348, down 12 points.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, HUL, TechM, Nestle, Infosys, Asian Paints, TCS emerged early losers. On the flip side, Maruti, NTPC, UltraCemco, Airtel, M&M, Titan were trading in the green.
Among individual stocks, shares of Maruti Suzuki gained over 2 per cent after the automaker posted highest-ever sales for FY23 - 1.9 lakh units.
In the broader markets, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rose up to 0.4 per cent.
Sectorwise, Nifty Auto index gained the most, over 1 per cent, after auto firms logged robust sales momentum in March. Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG indices, however, were bogged down in trade.
In the previous session on Friday, the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 58,991, up 1,031 points, while the NSE Nifty 50 hit a high of 17,382, and settled 279 points higher at 17,360.
In the global market, the US equity futures were mixed overnight, ahead of the second quarter's start. While Dow Jones Futures rose 0.1 per cent, NASDAQ Futures, and the S&P 500 Futures slipped up to 0.3 per cent. Asia-Pacific markets, however, gained this morning as Nikkei 225, the S&P 200, Topix, Kospi indices surged up to 0.8 per cent.
Asian markets witnessed mixed trends on Monday, while the European and the US markets had closed with gains on Friday. Sensex and Nifty too had ended the day with substantial gains.
On Sunday, oil prices rose after Saudi Arabia led an oil production cut across several OPEC+ nations. The group's decision to reduce output by more than 1 million barrels a day is a jolt to markets that had been looking to a near-term peak in inflationary pressure.
V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said there are more headwinds for markets at this stage, including the rise in Brent crude price. This will make inflation management tough for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), he added.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 5.50 per cent to $84.28 per barrel.
On Friday, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers as they purchased shares worth Rs 357.86 crore.
Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated 25 paise to 82.46 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, weighed down by firm crude oil prices and a negative trend in domestic equities.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened weak at 82.44 against the dollar, then fell to 82.46, registering a decline of 25 paise over its last close.
On Friday, the rupee settled at 82.21 against the dollar. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.48 per cent to 102.99.