Mumbai, Jul 31 (IANS): Indian equity indices opened in the green on Wednesday following positive cues from Asian peers.

At 9.41 a.m., Sensex was up 82 points or 0.10 per cent, at 81,542 and Nifty was up 30 points or 0.12 per cent, at 24,887.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,507 shares remained in the green and 480 shares remained in the red.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index was at 58,792, up 169 points or 0.29 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,146, down 60 points or 0.31 per cent.

Pharma, FMCG, metal, fin service and media indices were in the green. Realty, energy and PSU bank indices were in the red.

In the Sensex pack, NTPC, Asian Paints, JSW Steel, ITC, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, HUL and Nestle were major gainers. Tata Motors, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank were major losers.

Recently, SEBI proposed new rules for Futures and Options (F&O) trading to prevent speculation in the market.

According to the market experts, "SEBI's crackdown on F&O trade is eminently desirable and can go a long way towards making the ongoing rally healthy and less speculative."

"The irrational exuberance of the retail investors, particularly the newbies who entered the market after the Covid crash, will do more harm than good to the overall market in the long run," they added.

There was a bullish trend in global markets. The markets of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul and Jakarta were bullish. However, US markets closed mixed on Tuesday.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling as they sold equities worth Rs 5,598 crore on July 30, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 5,565 crore on the same day.