New Delhi, The Indian equities opened lower during the early trade on Thursday due to profit booking by investors after sizable gains in past two-to-three sessions.

At 10.28 a.m., Sensex traded at 59,272 points, down 0.5 per cent or 285 points from the previous close of 59,558 points. It opened at 59,528 points.

Nifty traded at 17,687 points, down 0.5 per cent or 93 points from the previous close of 17,780 points. It opened at 17,767 points.

Among the stocks, HDFC, L&T, SBI Life, Infosys, and Bajaj Finance were the top five losers in the morning session.

On the contrary, Hero Motocorp, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Titan, and Tata Consumers were the top gainers.

"Technically, the market is strong aided by the steady decline in FII selling, and DIIs and retail investors consistently buying dips. Financials are strong and IT is staging a comeback after the recent correction. This trend is likely to continue," said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Globally, markets are highly volatile and it is likely to continue till some clarity emerges on the US Federal Reserve's rate hike decision in March, Vijayakumar said.

"If the Fed opts for a 50 basis point rate hike in March, as some experts fear, there will be a sell-off in equity markets globally. But now, this is a low probability event. The Fed would prefer gradual rate hikes without upsetting markets."

The US central bank's Federal Open Market Committee in its latest meeting held lat last month said it was ready to tighten monetary policy through rate hike.

In the same meeting, the Committee kept its policy interest rate "near zero" and stated its expectation that an increase in this rate would "soon be appropriate".