Mumbai, May 22 (IANS): Indian equity indices opened in the red on Wednesday after early trades.

At 9:50 a.m., Sensex was down 53 points or 0.07 per cent, at 73,900 points and Nifty was down 25 points or 0.12 per cent, at 22,503 points.

Midcap and small stocks underperformed the benchmarks. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was down 319 points or 0.60 per cent at 51,740 points and the Nifty small cap was down 167 points or 0.99 per cent at 16,783 points.

Among the sector indices, Auto, PSU Bank, Fin Service, Metal, Media, Infra, PSE, Oilgas and Pharma were major losers, while IT, FMCG, Realty, and Consumption were major gainers.

17 out of the 30 Sensex stocks were trading in red.

Reliance, NTPC, HUL, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, and Infosys were the top gainers. Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, and JSW Steel were the top losers.

On the global front, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta, and Seoul were trading in the green. Trading was in the red in Tokyo and Bangkok. American markets closed in the green. There was a decline of about one per cent in crude oil. Brent crude was at $82 per barrel and WTI crude was at $78 per barrel.

Vaishali Parekh, Vice President-Technical Research, Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt Ltd, said: "Nifty has stabilised near the 22500 zone in the last 2-3 sessions, with select midcap counters witnessing active participation to keep the market players active."

"With the overall bias maintained positive, we expect the levels near the 22400 zone to be sustained in the coming days, and a decisive breach above 22600 levels shall further strengthen the trend to expect for the next target of the 22900 level," she added.