Opening Bell: Sensex, Nifty open flat; banking shares gain, auto stocks drag

The Indian markets started the fresh day on a flat note on Monday after the last week saw trading for only four days due to the holiday on Guru Nanak Jayanti on Friday. Nifty, Sensex opened flat at 17,796.25 and 59,710.48, respectively. 

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The Bank Nifty Index also opened above the 38,000-level at 38,232.15.  

Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Britannia, NTPC, PowerGrid were the opening gainers on Nifty50, while Reliance, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Eicher Motors dragged the index the most. 

Earlier, the SGX Nifty has hinted at a positive opening for the Indian markets as the Nifty Futures traded in 34 points higher in the morning trade.  

In the pre-open, the Sensex opened flat with negative bias after gaining 0.12% to 59,710.48, while the Nifty 50 started at 17,890. 

Meanwhile, the Asian markets on Monday morning largely traded in the negative or flat. Japanese Nikkei was down 0.32% or 93.71 to 29,652, Hang Sang Index at Hong Exchange was down 19 points o 25,040 and Shanghai Composite traded 13 points lower to 3573 around 7.20 am.   

On Friday, Wall Street indices closed mixed as Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed negative, while Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4%.  Dow Jones shed 269 points to 35,601, Nasdaq gained 64 points to 16,057 and S&P 500 lost 7 points to settle at 4,697. 

On Thursday in a holiday-shortened week, headline indices Sensex ended 372 points lower, while Nifty50 gave up 17,800 to close at 17,745.35 and 59,636.01 respectively.