Indian bourses have had a pretty jerky opening today, with the major stock indices stretching the recent pessimism during early morning trade and the broader market subdued.

ADAG group scrips dropped after market watchdog SEBI placed a ban on Anil Ambani and two group firms from investing in the secondary market till 2011 end.

At 09:23 a. m., the 30-share index BSE Sensex, which belled the day at 18,911, gained 35 points to trade at 18,895 as compared to its last closure.

Earlier, the Sensex had hit an intraday peak of 18,911 and an intraday low of 18,780.

In contrast, the broad-based Nifty remained up by 6 points to trade at 5,658 as against its last closure.

The BSE Smallcap and the BSE Midcap indexed remained flat.

Among Sectoral indices, the real estate, automobile, power, banking and metal topped the negative charts.

Selected scrips from pharma, capital goods, FMCG, oil & gas and PSU recorded marginal gains.

The overall breadth of the stock market remained neutral.

Some of the notable gainers in the Sensex and the Nifty were Suzlon, BPCL, HDFC Bank, Dr. Reddy, Axis Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sun Pharma and Cipla.

The top losers in the Sensex and the Nifty comprised Rel Power, Rel Capital, Rel Infra, Sesa Goa, RCOM, Sterlite, Hero Honda and Ambuja Cement.