Mumbai, April 2 : Indian equity indices opened in the green on Wednesday as heavyweights like Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki continued to lift the market sentiment amid mixed global cues.

At 9:20 am, Sensex was up 178 points or 0.24 per cent at 76,203, and the Nifty was up 29 points or 0.13 per cent at 23,195.

Around 1,017 shares advanced, 1,533 shares declined, and 127 shares unchanged on BSE.

In early trading hour, selling was seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index was down 278 points or 0.54 per cent, at 50,951 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was down 158 points or 0.99 per cent at 15,824.

On the sectoral front, Auto, IT, financial services, realty and private bank were major gainers. FMCG, metal energy and infra were major losers.

In the Sensex pack, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, M&M, Kotak Mahindra, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv and L&T were major gainers. Nestle, Power Grid, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, HUL, Tata Motors, HCL Tech and SBI were major gainers.

Hardik Matalia, Derivative Analyst, Choice Broking, said that after a flat opening, Nifty can find support at 23,100, followed by 23,000 and 22,950.

'On the higher side, 23,300 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 23,400 and 23,500,' he maintained.

Asian markets were trading amid mixed cues. Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong markets were in red, while Shanghai and Bangkok markets were in green.

US markets also witnessed mixed trading in the Tuesday session. There was a slight decline in the Dow exchange. On the other hand, Nasdaq, an index of technology companies, closed 0.87 per cent higher.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling for the second consecutive session on April 1 as they sold equities worth Rs 5,901 crore. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued their buying on the third consecutive day as they bought equities of Rs 4,322 crore on the same day.

/IANS