Opening Bell: Nifty gives up 17,900, Sensex below 59,900; IT shares continue to drag

Domestic equity markets started Thursday's session on a flat note with negative bias amid mixed global cues. The broader Nifty slid below 17,900, while the Sensex declined by over 150 points to below 60,000-mark. The two indices opened at 17,921 and 60,045.48 respectively.  

Tata Consumer, Powergrid, UPL, Grasim, Bajaj Finserv, Ultratech cement, Tata Steel, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel were among the top gainers.  

Infosys, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra, Nestle India, HCL Tech, Dr Reddy's, Reliance, Tech Mahindra, TCS and Wipro were among those which declined the most on Thursday. 

In the pre-open, the Sensex opened flat with negative bias as the 30-share index shed 53.34 points or 0.09% to 60,045.48 on Thursday. As many as 19 shares advanced and 11 declined on the index.  

SGX Nifty Futures hinted at negative to flat opening for the Indian markes as the index traded lower by 47.50 points or 0.26% to 17,930 at 9 am on the Singaporean Exchange on Thursday.  

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Asian markets were seen trading in the green on Thursday morning. Japanese Nikkei 225 was marginally up by 0.10%, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange was trading higher by 1.41% and Chinese Shanghai Composite was also trading higher by 0.22%.  

Earlier, the US markets closed in the red for yet another session on Wednesday. Dow Jones declined 0.96%, Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.15%, S&P 500 traded lower by 0.7% and Russell 2000 declined 1.60%. 

Earlier, the UK's inflation rate rose to 5.4% in December from 5.1% in November owing to rising demand, surging energy costs and supply constraints. 

"Globally, risk sentiments took a blow as rising inflation resulting in elevated bond yield along with the on-going geopolitical tensions and surge in oil prices weighed on investor confidence. This along with consistent FII selling forced the domestic market to trade in favour of bears for the second consecutive day," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services had said after Wednesday's closing.