IANS

Mumbai, Jul 30: Indian equities opened lower Thursday on weak cues from other Asian markets even as investors continued to look for avenues to book profits at every possible stage, analysts said.

The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened at 15,169.23 points, as against previous day's close at 15,173.46 points, and drifted lower to 15,109.32 points soon after.

Some 10 minutes into trading, the key index was at 15,158.03 points, with a loss of 15.43 points, or 0.10 percent, over the previous day's close.

But mid-cap and small-cap stocks were outperforming the Sensex stocks, with a gain of 0.23 percent and 0.33 percent, respectively, for the two indices.

Hero Honda, State Bank of India and Housing Development Finance Corp led the gainers, while the losers were led by Tata Steel, ITC and Sterlite, data with the stock exchange showed.

At the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty was ruling at 4,491.30 points, with a loss of 0.49 percent over the previous day's close of 4,513.50 points.