MUMBAI: The market opened slightly higher tracking Asian cues, but slipped into the red led by heavyweights like Larsen and Toubro, ICICI Bank, BHEL and NTPC.

At 10:05 am, the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was up 41 points or 0.25 per cent at 16,719.14, making a high of 16,742.20 and

Biggest losers in early trade were HDFC Bank (down 1.84%), Larsen & Toubro (1.58%), Wipro (1.17%), ICICI Bank (1.12%), BHEL (1%), Reliance Communications (0.91%), NTPC (0.77%) and ITC (0.73%).

Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.13%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.02%), Tata Motors (0.99%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (0.88%) and Bajaj Auto (0.64%) were the gainers. Market breadth on BSE showed 171 advances and 107 declines.

The National Stock Exchange's Nifty was 7 points up at 4959.50. The index touched a high of 4976.70 and low of 4923.25 in trade so far.

Asian markets were mixed Tuesday with shares swinging between negative and positive territories, as a decline in banks such as Mizuho Financial Group was countered by bargain buying in exporters such as Honda Motor. The Nikkei was 0.1 per cent higher, the Hang Seng was up 0.27 per cent and the Straits Times down 0.05 per cent.

After treading in and out of positive territory through Monday, US stocks ended flat as smaller-than-forecast drop in manufacturing offset a decline in construction spending. The Standards & Poors 500 finished 0.1 per cent up, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.1 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.6 per cent.