Mumbai, Sep 30 (IANS): Indian equity indices opened in the red on Monday following negative cues from global equity markets.

At 9:40 a.m. Sensex was down 551 points or 0.64 per cent at 85,019 and Nifty was down 163 points or 0.63 per cent at 26,015.

In the BSE benchmark, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Titan, Asian Paints, HUL, HCL Tech and Bajaj Finance were top gainers. Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Reliance, M&M, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement and HDFC Bank were top losers.

Selling was also seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index was down 482 points or 0.80 per cent at 59,898 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was down 137 points or 0.71 per cent at 19,104.

Among the Sectoral indices, Auto, IT, PSU Bank, finservice, pharma, energy and realty were major losers. FMCG and metal were major gainers.

All markets in Asia except Hong Kong and Shanghai are in decline. Tokyo, Seoul and Jakarta are major losers. The US markets closed mixed in Friday's trading session.

According to the market experts, "Market is likely to move into a consolidation phase in the near-term. One significant factor that is influencing foreign portfolios is the outperformance of the Chinese stocks which is reflected in the massive surge in the Hang Seng index by around 18 per cent in September."

"FIIs may continue to sell in India and move some more money to better-performing markets. FII selling is unlikely to impact the Indian market significantly since the massive domestic money can easily absorb whatever the FIIs are selling. Investors can use dips to buy quality largecaps which are fairly valued," they added.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers as they sold equities worth Rs 1,209 crore on September 27, while domestic institutional investors extended their buying as they bought equities worth Rs 6,886 crore on the same day.