Market reacts downward in morning trade

The 30-share index opens better at 19,972.75 from Wed's close of 19,868.11 and tumbles to a low of 19,652.55.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Thursday eased 31 points at 10:30 am, on the back of weak global cues but recovered major part of its initial losses on expectations of robust corporate results.

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The 30-share index, Sensex opened better at 19,972.75 from Wednesday's close of 19,868.11 and tumbled to a low of 19,652.55 before being quoted at 19,837.05, a fall of 31.06 points.

Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also eased by 14.35 points to 5,921.40 at 10.30 am from previous close of 5,935.75.

Retail investors and operators went on buying spree on expectations of good results from RIL.

But an unexpected slowdown in the US retail sales and record quarterly losses posted by financial services giant Citigroup spooked markets across the global on Wednesday, mainly weighed on the other stock markets.

Third quarter results of Reliance Industries (RIL) will influence the market today given that RIL is a heavyweight in the key indices.

A meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) on fuel pricing is scheduled today. There had been reports recently that the government may hike petrol prices by a steep Rs 4 per litre and diesel by Rs 2 per litre.

However, Asian markets showed mixed trend at opening.