Indian equity benchmark indices were flat at opening bell on Friday, after closing at record levels in the previous session.

At 10 AM, the BSE Sensex was at 84,940, up 104 points, or 0.12 per cent, while the Nifty 50 was at 26,262, up 46 points, or 0.18 per cent.

More than half the stocks on the BSE Sensex opened in the red, with losses led by Power Grid Corp., Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Hinudstan Unilever, and Bajaj Finserv, while the gainers were Sun Pharma, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCLTech, and Tata Steel.

On the Nifty 50, 20 stocks were in the red, while seven were unchanged. Gains were led by Infosys, Sun Pharma, Hindalco Indstries, TCS, and BPCL, while Larsen & Toubro, Shriram Finance, Dr Reddy’s, Hindustan Unilever, and HDFC Bank, were the top drags.

Across sectors, the Nifty IT index was the top gainer, climbing 2.75 per cent, followed by the Metal index, which was up 1.09 per cent. Meanwhile, the financial indices, Bank and Financial Services were trading in the red, along with FMCG, Auto, and Realty.

The broader markets were up with the BSE SmallCap gaining 0.50 per cent, and the BSE MidCap climbing 0.23 per cent.

Global Cues

That apart, most markets in the Asia-Pacific region advanced, led by gains in Chinese stocks. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up 2.43 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite was up 1.3 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.33 per cent, while the broader Topix index saw a slight decline of 0.23 per cent.

In South Korea, the Kospi slipped 0.07 per cent, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.15 per cent. Conversely, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.06 per cent.

That apart, global stock indexes reached record highs on Thursday after chipmaker Micron Technology’s upbeat forecast, while oil dropped on a media report that Saudi Arabia plans to dump its unofficial crude price target of $100 a barrel.

Silver rose to its highest level in nearly 12 years, with interest rate cuts by major central banks lifting investment interest in precious metals.

The S&P 500 registered an all-time closing high, as did the pan-European STOXX 600 index. MSCI’s global stock index hit an intraday record.