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By 10:25, Sensex dipped by 20 points at 19,464, and the Nifty down 7 points at 5,897 levels.
The MXCX SX benchmark index SX 40 has gone live with its equity trading platform on both the equity and equity derivatives section today.
At 1033 hrs IST, SBI was the top gainer among the stocks traded. The shares of SBI has added 1.7% to Rs 2,325. Around 20 shares have been traded so far.
NTPC, HDFC Bank and Reliace are up 0.7-1.3% each. Reliance, Suzlon and Inventure are leading the volume chart while the value chart is being led by Reliance, SBI and Reliance Capital.
In the international markets, oil and equities dawdled on Monday near multi-month highs scaled after robust Chinese trade data last week, while the euro slipped to a two-week low as uncertainty surrounded a political scandal in Spain and a looming election in Italy.
With the Lunar New Year holiday shutting most Asian financial centres, including those in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, trading was light and potentially volatile on those exchanges that remained open.
Australian shares were flat after closing at a 34-month high on Friday following positive data from China, the most important consumer of Australia's commodity exports.
Back home, the rupee today fell by 24 paise to 53.74 in early trade, continuing its downward march for the fourth straight session at the Interbank Foreign Exchange, due to continued dollar demand from importers.
On the sectoral front, BSE FMCG index is down by almost 1%. However, BSE Consumer Durable and Realty indices are up by nearly 1% each.
Bharti Airtel is the top Sensex loser, down around 2%. ITC, Hero Moto, ONGC, HDFC, CIL, L&T and Tata Power have declined by 1% each.
DRL, Tata Motors, Cipla, Wipro and Sterlite have gained between 1-2%.
Among other shares, Cadila Healthcare has dipped 6% to Rs 743, extending its previous day’s 3% fall, on reported 31% year-on-year (yoy) drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 103 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q3) due to higher tax outgo and raw material cost.
Hexaware Technologies is trading higher by 4% to Rs 84.70 after IT consulting and software firm reported a better-than-expected consolidated net profit of Rs 66 crore against an average analyst estimates of Rs 61 crore for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q4).
Gillette India has tanked 7% to Rs 2,122 after the company said it is taking steps to increase its public shareholding to 25% as directed by the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The market breadth in BSE remains almost neutral.
