New Delhi, Feb 29 (IANS): In line with their Asian peers, key Indian equity market indices were trading weak on Monday just ahead of the national budget due at 11 am, with the investors expecting nothing major from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to the cheer their mood.

As against the previous close at 23,154.30 points, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE opened at 23,238.50 points. Soon after, it was trading at 23,129.21 points, with a loss of 25.09 points, or 0.11 percent.

At the NSE, the 50-share Nifty was trading at 7,019.80 points, down 9.95 points, ot 0.14 percent.

Within the Sensex basket, 17 shares were down, while the remaining 13 posted some gains, while in the case of Nifty, 27 were in the red, 22 advanced, while one share remained unchanged.

All eyes were on Finance Minister Jaitley, as he reached his North Block office in the morning, before his scheduled departure for Parliament House to present the nexy fiscal's budget in the Lok Sabha.