The stock market opened weak on Tuesday with the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex declining by over 78 points on funds selling ahead of the release of Reserve Bank of India's annual Monetary and Credit policy.
The 30-share Sensex lost 78.26 points at 13,850.07 in the first five minutes of trading.
Similarly, on the wide-based National Stock Exchange, Nifty fell by 27.40 points at 4,057.70.
Stock brokers said activity was selective with market players adopting a cautious approach ahead of the RBI policy. Major losers were Reliance Industries, Wipro, Satyam Computers, Infosys Technologies, Larsen and Toubro, BHEL and ONGC.
Banking shares were moving in a tight range on fears that RBI may hike interest rates.
Meanwhile, stocks of Hinduja TMT were re-listed on the bourses lower at Rs 720 as against the base price of Rs 900.