Mumbai, Dec 16 (IANS): The Indian stock market opened in red on Monday as selling was seen in Nifty's auto, IT, PSU Bank, pharma and metal sectors.

At around 9:32 am, Sensex was trading at 81,876.95 after declining 256.17 points or 0.31 per cent, while the Nifty was trading at 24,705.60 after dropping 62.70 points or 0.25 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,170 stocks were trading in green, while 571 stocks were in red.

Akshay Chinchalkar of Axis Securities said that Friday's highly volatile session saw the Nifty slump during the early part of the session, “but the day's low occurred exactly at the falling neckline of the bullish head-and-shoulders pattern which was activated on December 3 with an upside objective of 25,500."

This objective remains valid as long as the market stays above 23,873, but more critical support now is the Friday low of 24,180, he added.

Nifty Bank was down 168 points or 0.31 per cent at 53,415.80. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 59,234.85 after rising 243.30 points or 0.41 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,515.40 after rising 108.10 points or 0.56 per cent.

According to market experts, the huge positions in F&O segments are causing such heightened volatility in the market. The 500 point move in the nifty from the day’s trough to the peak indicates massive short covering.

In the Sensex pack, NTPC, JSW Steel, M&M, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, TCS, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Axis Bank and Tech Mahindra were the top losers. Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, L&T, ITC, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank and HCL Tech were the top gainers.

In the Asian markets, except China, the markets of Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul, Jakarta and Japan were trading in red.

In US stock markets the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.12 per cent higher and Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.20 per cent down on the previous trading session.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,335.32 crore on December 13, while domestic institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 732.20 crore on the same day.