Mumbai, June 27 : India equity indices opened flat on Thursday following negative cues from global markets.

At 9:45 a.m., Sensex was up 20 points at 78,694 and Nifty was up 9 points at 23,877.

Midcap and smallcap stocks are outperforming compared to largecaps. The Nifty Midcap 100 index is at 55,429, up 183 points or 0.33 per cent, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index is at 18,334, up 35 points or 0.20 per cent.

The market trend remains positive. On NSE, out of total 1278 shares are in green, while 792 shares are in red.

UltraTech Cement, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and Bajaj Finance are the top gainers. M&M, Tech Mahindra, L&T, HCL Tech, and Wipro are the top losers.

There is a decline in Asian markets. Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hongkong and Bangkok are trading in the red. The US markets closed flat on Wednesday.

Shrey Jain Founder and CEO of SAS Online said, "After being range-bound until mid-month, the Nifty is now experiencing a decisive upside breakout. For today's monthly expiry, we expect the Nifty to encounter resistance around 24,000 due to the maximum Call open interest (OI) at that level."

"On the downside, the 23,650-23,700 zone is considered a buying area, with fresh long positions recommended around these levels," Jain added.

/IANS