Nifty, Sensex trade flat in early trade on weak global trends

• ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid are amongst the top gainers.
• Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro are the laggards in trade.
• In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai are trading lower.

Benchmark indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, traded almost flat in early session on Monday amid weak trends in global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 56.3 points to 65,453.92 in opening trade. The Nifty gained 14.2 points to 19,556.85.

Both the benchmark indices faced volatile trends later and were trading with marginal in the red at the time of publishing.

Among the Sensex firms, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Nestle, Bajaj Finserv and Reliance Industries Limited were the major gainers.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Consultancy Services, JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra IndusInd Bank and Titan were among the laggards.

Commenting on the market technical, Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, "The charts indicate that the Nifty may get support at 19,500, followed by 19,450 and 19,400. If the index advances, 19,575 would be the initial key resistance level to watch out for, followed by 19,650 and 19,700."

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai were trading lower. The US markets ended in negative territory on Friday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.89% to USD 91.34 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 456.21 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased Rs 8.53 crore worth of stocks on October 20, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.

The BSE benchmark fell 231.62 points or 0.35% to settle at 65,397.62 on Friday. The Nifty declined 82.05 points or 0.42% to 19,542.65.

(With text input from PTI)