NEW DELHI: Global growth concerns weighed on Asian markets and India was no exception to it.
Benchmark indices opened lower on Wednesday as IMF cut global growth outlook and also pared India's growth forecast for the next two years.Asian shares stepped back from eight-month highs.
MSCIs broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.1 per cent, a day after it hit eight-month highs while Japans Nikkei lost 0.9 per cent.
Crude prices above $70 a barrel along with trade escalating tensions over tariffs between the United States and Europe were among other factors that kept market subdued.
At around 9:30 am, BSE sensex was down 19.87 points or 0.05 per cent at 38,919.35.
While NSE Nifty was trading 4 points or 0.031 per cent lower at 11,668.35 with 29 constituents in the red and 21 in the green.In the Sensex pack of stocks, 18 traded in the green while 12 in the red.
Coal India topped the leaderboard rising, 1.49 per cent.
Other stocks that witessed gains were ONGC, Tata Steel, MM, HUL and IndusInd Bank.However, TCS was leading the loser pack, down 1.02 per cent.
Among other losers were HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hero Moto Corp, Maruti and HCL Tech.Reliance was the biggest contributor however index heavyweights -- HDFC Bank, HDFC and TCS were major drags.Nonetheless, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap started off with mild gains, rising 0.18 per cent and 0.22 per cent respectively.On the BSE sectoral front, IT and Teck were the biggest losers.
BSE Realty was the biggest gainer led by Oberoi realty, Godrej Properties and IB Realty.Meanwhile, the government has met the fiscal deficit target of 3.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in FY19, by reducing spending and higher borrowings from small savings funds.