Mumbai, Sep 4 (IANS): Indian equity indices opened lower on Wednesday following weak global cues from US and Asian markets.

At 9:43 a.m., Sensex was down 553 points or 0.67 per cent at 81,998 and Nifty was down 180 points or 0.70 per cent at 25,099.

Banking and IT stocks lead the fall. Nifty Bank was at 51,272, down by 416 points or 0.81 per cent. Nifty IT was at 42,202, down by 648 points or 1.50 per cent.

Auto, PSU Bank, fin service, metal, energy, pse, infra and realty were the other major laggards.

In the Sensex pack, Wipro, JSW, Infosys, L&T, Tata Steel, SBI, Axis Bank, NTPC, M&M and Axis Bank were the top losers. Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and Sun Pharma were the top gainers.

Almost all Asian markets are trading in the red. There is a decline in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul. Only Jakarta markets are in the green. American markets closed in the red on Tuesday.

According to market experts, "Historically September has been a weak month for global markets. This has been true for the last four years. Going by early trends, this might again turn out to be true this year, too. The selloff in US markets yesterday was triggered by growth concerns."

"The buy-on-dips strategy that has been working well in this bull run may play out this time, too. Retail investors waiting for a correction are likely to jump in on dips. It remains to be seen if the trend will sustain," they added.

Sameet Chavan, Head Research, Technical and Derivative of Angel One said: "For Nifty 25200 is poised to act as a key support for the benchmark, while a solid support zone is expected within the 25,100-25,000 range. On the higher end of the spectrum, 25,350-25,400 is anticipated to act as intermediate resistance, followed by the sturdy hurdle of 25,500 in the comparable period."