Nifty Opens Marginally Lower; Banking Stocks Decline

Benchmark indices opened the day marginally lower in trade, despite most of Asia trading with gains. Banking stocks led by ICICI Bank, put some pressure on the Sensex, which was down 20 points in early trade. The Nifty was trading with losses of 4 points at 8148 points.

Shares in ICICI Bank fell as much as 1.5 per cent after the bank cuts its interest rate on home loans. This followed a drop in home loan rates by rivals like State Bank of India and HDFC.

Shares in Sun Pharma saw some profit booking after the superb rally seen on Tuesday. Phoenix Mills was trading higher after after the company said it has acquired the entire 19.38 per cent equity stake held by MTX Hotels in Gangetic Hotels Private Limited (GHPL).

Mid cap stocks were also trading higher with the index up 0.20 per cent. However, Jindal Steel, Jubilant Foodworks, NMDC and Page Industries lost ground.

Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets were trading with gains led by the Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Jakarta Composite.

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