Mumbai, June 3 : Indian equity indices opened a tad lower on Tuesday as heavyweights like L&T and Bajaj Finance were trading in the red.

At 9:24 am, Sensex was down 152 points or 0.19 per cent at 81,221.39 and Nifty was down 36.40 points or 0.16 per cent at 24,680.40.

Buying was seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index was up 167.85 points or 0.29 per cent at 57,943.40 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was up 107.85 points or 0.60 per cent at 18,202.05.

On the Sectoral front, auto, PSU Bank, pharma, metal, realty, media were major gainers. Financial services, FMCG and energy and pvt bank were major losers.

According to analysts, after a flat opening, Nifty can find support at 24,700 followed by 24,600 and 24,500. On the higher side, 24,800 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,900 and 25,000.

In the Sensex pack, Eternal (Zomato), Tata Steel, M&M, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors and Asian Paints were major gainers. L&T, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, HUL, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki were major losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the green. Tokyo, Shanghai, Jakarta and Hong Kong were top contributors.

Analysts said that during a consolidation phase, where the market moves within a range, buy on dips is the ideal strategy.

'And this strategy is working well now. With a lot of uncertainty in geopolitics, tariffs and trade the market will continue to remain volatile. Therefore, investors may persist with the strategy of buying on dips," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling for a second consecutive session on June 2 as they sold equities worth Rs 2,589 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) extended their buying on the tenth day as they bought equities of Rs 5,313 crore on the same day.

/IANS