The markets have opened lower on negative global sentiments. The Sensex was trading 154 points lower at 18,283 and the Nifty declined 48 points to 5,470 at 9.37 am.

The markets closed gap up on Monday but overnight global sentiments have turned negative affecting investors on the Dalal Street.

Asian markets were trading with deep cuts and all indices were in the red. The Libyan unrest has led to a spike in oil prices. The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 1.83 per cent after rating agency Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating because of massive debt. The Hang Seng was trading 1.97 per cent lower, the South Korean Kospi declined 1.88 per cent and the Chinese indices fell 2-2.5 per cent.

The situation had been worse but for the $7.2 billion RIL-BP deal. RIL was alone contributing almost 100 points to the Sensex.

RIL announced that it is selling 30 per cent stake in its 23 oil and gas blocks to BP for $7.2 billion after market hours on Monday. The stock surged 4.8 per cent in early trade and was the only gainer among the 30-stock Sensex. Analysts were mostly bullish about the deal.

Sushil Choksey of Rosy Blue Securities said, “The markets need a stabilising factor from a large cap stock and this deal might give some support to the markets.” Choksey said RIL has not performed over the past 2 years because, “E&P was a drag…the other drag was the RPL investigation by Sebi,” but this deal could change all that, he added.

However, Mehraboon Irani of Nirmal Bang Securities said the valuations are slightly on the lower side. “The E&P valuation was pegged at Rs 450 per share but they have got Rs 295 per share,” he added.

Barring the oil & gas stocks, all sectoral indices were trading in the red. Banking, metal, realty, auto and IT all declined 1-2 per cent.

Small cap and mid cap stocks were also weak. The market breadth was extremely weak with only 20 per cent stocks managing to rise among the BSE 500.