Mumbai, Aug 29 (IANS): Indian equity indices opened flat on Thursday due to negative cues from Asian and US markets.

At 9.40 a.m., Sensex was at 81,816, up 31 points and Nifty was up 19 points at 25,071.

During the early trading hour, the Overall market trend remains positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,134 shares are in the green and 759 shares in the red.

Marginal buying is seen in the smallcap and midcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index is up 21 points or 0.04 per cent at 59,179 and the Nifty smallcap 100 index is up 46 points or 0.23 per cent at 19,369.

Among the sectoral indices, PSU Bank, fin service, pharma, FMCG and media are the major gainers. Metal, energy, realty and infra are major laggards.

In the Sensex pack, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Sun Pharma, Power Grid, NTPC, Nestle, ITC, Wipro and Tata Motors are the top gainers. UltraTech Cement, Infosys, HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, JSW Steel and Axis Bank are the top losers.

According to the market experts, "Weak global cues and the consequent weak openings have proved to be opportunities to buy in the domestic market. This pattern may persist. A significant feature of the near-term market trend is that it is resilient and steadily moving up without sharp spurts thereby preventing a spike in valuations in the largecap category."

"The recent accumulation of IT stocks stems from the confidence that the soft landing scenario in the US economy will lead to the execution of the orders on which the IT companies have been sitting for some time now," they said.

Selling is seen in the Asian markets. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai and Seoul are in the red. Only Jakarta markets are trading in the green. The US markets closed in the red in Wednesday's trading session.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers on August 28 as they sold equities worth Rs 1,347 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 439 crore on the same day.