Stock market news: Benchmark indices NSE Nifty 50 and S&P BSE Sensex, commenced trading today on a subdued note, reflecting the cautious sentiment prevalent in the pre-market period despite earlier indications of a marginal uptick. The market opened with financials and energy stocks weighing down the indices, while Asian peers exhibited marginal gains. Nifty IT index, which surged close to 1 per cent, was the sole gainer among the sectoral indices. 

As of 9:30 am, the blue-chip indexes, Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex, were trading 43.55 points lower at 22,011.50 and 160.12 points lower at 72,462.98 respectively.

Wall Street equities showed mixed performance overnight, while Asian markets opened marginally higher, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index adding 0.1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei topped a record set during the 1980s bubble economy and was long seen as unbreakable.

“The underlying strength of the ongoing market rally is getting widely acknowledged. This explains the FII buying, though marginal, yesterday when the US 10-year bond yield was around 4.3 percent. DIIs have been smart to buy continuously when the FIIs have been selling. So, for DIIs there is room to book some profits, which they did yesterday. In the tug-of-war between FIIs and DIIs in recent years, DIIs have been the clear winners. So, watch out for the DII action,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

"An important trend now is the huge delivery-based buying in the private banks, which are even now attractively valued in this market with elevated valuations. Switching from over-valued mid and small caps to large private banks would be a smart move," Vijayakumar added.