Domestic markets open flat; L&T Tech debuts

Indian markets on Friday opened flat due to mixed global cues. The BSE Sensex opened at 28,762, down 12 points and NSE Nifty at 8,881, up 13 points.

At 0921 hours the BSE Sensex was trading at 28,742.02, down 31.11 points, or 0.11%. The NSE Nifty maintained 8,800- mark, as it was trading at 8,847.85, down 19.60 points, or 0.22%.

On 30-share benchmark, among top gainers were Larsen & Toubro (0.67%), Reliance Industries (0.61%), Mahindra & Mahindra (0.46%), Tata Consultancy Services (0.44%) and Dr Reddy's Lab (0.42%). Among losers were Axis Bank (-2.42%), Tata Motors (-0.89%), Infosys (-0.60%), Bharti Airtel (-0.52%) and GAIL (-0.46%). 

The Indian rupee today opened lower by 3 paise at 66.69 per dollar as against previous close at 66.66 per dollar. 

Larsen & Toubro's engineering arm, L&T Technology Services will debut on equity markets today after completing its IPO on September 15. Its 900 crore worth IPO was oversubscribed 2.53 times. The price band fixed by the company was Rs 850-860.

On the global front, Asian shares edged closer to 14-month highs while the dollar was on the defensive as investors grew more convinced that the Federal Reserve is settling into a phase of very gradual interest rate hikes, a Reuters report said.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was steady and within sight of its highest levels since July 2015 that it hit in early September.