Sensex, Nifty open lower; HUL, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, Infosys top losers 

Stock market today: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened lower on Monday amid mixed global cues. In Asia, Hang Seng was up 424 pts and Nikkei rose 139 pts. On Friday, US market closed marginally lower. Meanwhile, Sensex fell 284 pts to 77,724 and Nifty slipped 62 pts to 24,301. Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 491.42 lakh crore.

Stocks such as Eternal, BEL, Axis Bank and M&M were the top Sensex gainers today, rising up to 0.79%.

HUL, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, Infosys and TCS were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.31%.

Meanwhile, brent crude oil prices were trading at $81 per barrel mark.

Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited said, "The market is likely to continue in the range of 24000 - 24600 in the near-term  till some triggers emerge to break the range. Crude trading at $81, without any prospects for an immediate resolution to the crisis, is likely to cap any uptrend that may emerge. Nifty is being bogged down by the poor performance of the IT majors and the big banking names."

Previous session 

Benchmark indices ended lower on Friday. Sensex was down 70.71 points or 0.09 percent at 78,009.25, and the Nifty was down 29.85 points or 0.12 percent at 24,366.