Domestic markets open flat on Fed Yellen's rate hike comment

Indian equity markets on Monday opened flat on back of US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen's comment on interest rates hike. 

BSE Sensex opened at 27,821.26, up 39.01 points or 0.1% and Nifty at 8583.75, up 11.20 points, or 0.1%. Soon after opening flat, the domestic markets dropped marginally. At 0943 hours, Sensex was at 27,762.50, down 19.75 points, or 0.07% and Nifty was at 8,562.55, down 10 points, or 0.12%.

On 30-share benchmark, among the top gainers were Tata Motors (3.17%), Axis Bank (1.57%), Tata Steel (1.07%), Reliance Industries (0.90%) and ICICI Bank (0.43%). Among losers were Adani Ports (-2.23%), Tata Consultancy Services (-1.51%), Wipro (-1.50%), Bajaj Auto (-1.38%) and Lupin (-1.35%).

The shares of Indian Oil Corporation will be in focus as the company is set to announce results for the quarter ended on June 30. At 1000 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 577 per piece, up 0.56%, or Rs 3.20 on BSE.

Indian Rupee depreciated by 8 paise at 67.14 per dollar versus 67.06 on Friday.

On the global markets front, most of Asian shares slipped while the US dollar held firm after Yellen indicated an interest rate increase later this year.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.7%. Japan's Nikkei, bucked the trend and climbed 2.2% as the yen weakened against the resurgent dollar, Reuters report said.

The dollar surged 1.3% against the yen on Friday to a two-week high, its biggest one-day advance in almost seven weeks. It extended those gains by 0.1% to 101.99 yen early today, the report added.