Mumbai, May 23 (IANS): The key Indian equity market indices on Tuesday opened lower despite Wall Street ending higher for the third session.

The Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had closed at 30,570.97 points on Monday, opened lower at 30,553.89 points.

Minutes into trading, it was quoting at 30,592.47 points, up by 21.50 points, or 0.07 per cent.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 51-scrip Nifty, which had closed at 9,438.25 points, was quoting at 9,446.75 points, up by 8.50 points or 0.09 per cent.

Following the Centre's decision to exempt food items from the purview of Goods and Services Tax (GST), a rally in FMCG stocks boosted the Indian equity markets on Monday.

The S&P FMCG index witnessed a surge of 297.25 points or 3.09 per cent during intra-day trade, led by ITC scrip with a surge of 6.21 per cent in its price.

However, the key indices pared some gains as investors were cautious in view of global political turmoil as well as ahead of derivatives expiry.

The Sensex was up by 106.05 points or 0.35 per cent at the Monday's closing. In the day's trade, the barometer 30-scrip sensitive index had touched a high of 30,712.15 points and a low of 30,516.87 points.

The Nifty too, was up by 10.35 points or 0.11 per cent.

On Tuesday, Asian indices were mostly showing a positive trend except Japan's Nikkei 225 which was trading in red, down by 0.07 per cent.

Hang Seng was up by 0.30 per cent while South Korea's Kospi was trading up by 0.87 per cent. China's Shanghai Composite index was quoting in green, up by 0.18 per cent.

Nasdaq closed in green, up by 0.81 per cent while FTSE 100 was also up by 0.34 per cent at the closing on Monday.