FIRST TRADE: Equity benchmarks open in red, Nifty holds 24,650 levels; Divi's Laboratories top Nifty gainer

Indian equities tracking tepid Asian markets and weakness in overnight trade on Wall Street opened lower as cautious sentiment prevailed ahead of the address by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later this week.

At around 9:22 am, the markets traded mixed with Nifty signalling some recovery of 0.01 per cent or 3.45 points at 24,702.3, while the Sensex was down 0.08 per cent or 65.9 points at 80,736.96 levels.

Sectorally, it is a mixed session with FMCG, pharma, metal, consumer durable and oil & gas indices trading in the green, while banking, financial services, IT, realty and auto traded weak.

From the Nifty pack, top gainers included stocks like Divi's Laboratories, Dr Reddy's, Hindalco, L&T and Bharti Airtel, while losers included UltraTech Cement, Shriram Finance, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said,  "An important trend in the market now is the shift in market preferences from overvalued segments to fairly valued segments. Attractively valued financials are witnessing value buying and overvalued segments like railways and defence- related stocks are witnessing profit booking. This is a healthy trend and is likely to sustain for some more time."

Prices cannot soar continuously. Reversion to mean is a normal trend, he added. 

The trend of FII selling and DII buying continues. But the fall in the dollar index to 101.39 has the potential to arrest the trend of FII outflows. 

Key events to watch include the July FOMC minutes and Fed Chair Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole conference, where hints of a 50-bps move could drive further market action, said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.

Meanwhile, Asian markets traded on a weak note as strength in the Japanese Yen fuelled a further unwinding in the carry trade. Furthermore, losses in the e-commerce major JD.com weighed on Hong Kong's Hang Seng which was last down by 0.9 per cent.