Mumbai, Jan 2 : The domestic benchmark indices opened flat on Thursday as selling was seen in the PSU bank, pharma, FMCG, realty, media, energy and metal sectors on Nifty.

At around 9.31 am, Sensex was trading at 78,573.16 after rising 65.75 points or 0.08 per cent, while Nifty was trading at 23,766.05 after rising 23.15 points or 0.10 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,366 stocks were trading in green, while 529 stocks were in red.

According to market experts, Q3 corporate earnings are unlikely to register a rebound which means that investors have to focus on segments which will buck the slowdown.

Nifty Bank was up 21 points or 0.04 per cent at 51,081.60. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 57,471.35 after rising 20.45 points or 0.04 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 18,961.95 after rising 2.15 points or 0.01 per cent.

On the sectoral front, buying was seen in the Auto, IT, financial service and private bank sectors on Nifty.

In the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Infosys, Zomato, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank were the top gainers. Whereas, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, ITC and Tech Mahindra were top losers.

The Dow Jones declined 0.07 per cent to close at 42,544.22. The S&P 500 declined 0.43 per cent to 5,881.60 and the Nasdaq declined 0.90 per cent to close at 19,310.79 in the last trading session.

In the Asian markets, Jakarta was trading in green while Hong Kong, China, Bangkok and Seoul were trading in red.

According to experts, FIIs are likely to continue with their selling strategy since the dollar remains strong and the US bond yields are attractive enough for FIIs to ignore emerging markets in the near-term.

"While domestic institutional investor (DII) buying can support the market at lower levels, that is not sufficient to take the market higher. For higher market levels we will have to wait for indications of growth and earnings recovery." they noted.

FIIs sold equities worth Rs 1,782.71 crore on January 1, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,690.37 crore on the same day.

/IANS