Mumbai, Apr 18 (IANS): Despite a muted trend in Asian markets, the key Indian equity market indices on Thursday opened higher as the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections began with voting in 95 seats in the morning.

The Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had closed at 39,275.64 points on Tuesday, opened higher at 39,420.04 points. The markets remained closed on Wednesday on account of Mahavir Jayanti.

Minutes into trading, it was quoting at 39,407.17 points, up by 131.53 points, or 0.33 per cent.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader Nifty 50 was quoting at 11,821.80 points, up by 34.65 points or 0.29 per cent.

As many as 34 stocks advanced in the Nifty 50 index while 16 stocks declined. In BSE Sensex, 20 stocks including those of Reliance and Tata Motors were trading in the green while 10 stocks including NTPC, ITC were trading in red at 9.21 a.m.

Jet Airways shares were down 9.99 per cent in early trading season after the carrier announced to temporarily suspend all flight operations from Wednesday night as it failed to secure an interim funding of Rs 400 crore for maintaining bare minimum operations.

On Thursday, Asian indices were showing mostly a negative trend.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was quoting in red, down by 0.79 per cent, while Hang Seng was down by 0.59 per cent, South Korea's Kospi was also down by 1.06 per cent. China's Shanghai Composite was also quoting in red, down by 0.07 per cent.

Overnight, Nasdaq closed in red, down by 0.05 per cent, while FTSE 100 was up marginally by 0.02 per cent at the closing on Wednesday.