Nifty trades around 8550, Sensex weak; Wipro slip 2 pct

The market on Monday opened flat reacting to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments on rate hikes. The Sensex traded up 39.01 points or 0.1 percent at 27821.26, while the Nifty traded up 11.20 points or 0.1 percent at 8583.75.

Shares such as Tata Motors, Cipla, Sun Pharma and Asian Paints were top gainers while Adani Ports, Lupin, Bharti, SBI and Axis were in the losers category.

The Indian rupee opened lower by eight paise at 67.14 per dollar versus 67.06 Friday.

As per the market experts, the Interest rate speculation will continue to keep the USD higher. Expectations are that the USD-INR pair will trade in the range of 66.90-67.20/dollar today.

The dollar was near a two-week high against the yen after comments from Central Bank chiefs at the weekend reinforced the divergence between monetary policy in the US and other parts of the world. Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated a pledge to ease monetary policy further if necessary, saying that he would bolster economic stimulus without hesitation.

Also, Coal India 's board announced approval of signing a pact with African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation SOC Ltd (AEMFC), owned by the South African government, for acquisition of coal mines in that country.

"The CIL board has accorded approval to the proposal for execution of MoU between CIL (Coal India) and African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation, SOC Ltd (AEMFC), an entity owned by the government of South Africa for identification, acquisition, exploration, development and operation of coal assets in South Africa," a recent report of the PSU said.