Indian Stock Market Opens in Red, Selling Pressure Across All Sectors
Mumbai: The Indian stock market opened on a negative note on Friday, with selling witnessed across all sectors of Nifty during early trade. At around 9:29 am, the Sensex was trading at 80,840.9, down by 449.02 points or 0.55%. Meanwhile, Nifty was at 24,421.15, having dropped 127.55 points or 0.52%.
The market trend remained bearish, with a significantly higher number of stocks in the red. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,657 stocks were trading in the red, compared to just 559 stocks in the green.
Market experts noted that the November Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation had come in at 5.48%, which is within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance limit. If this trend continues, it could pave the way for a rate cut by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in the upcoming February meeting. However, concerns over a rising dollar were highlighted, as it could lead to imported inflation. Experts suggested that Nifty is unlikely to break its current range of 24,500-24,850 in the near term.
The Nifty Bank index was down by 40.95 points, or 0.08%, at 53,175.50. The Nifty Midcap 100 index saw a drop of 314.85 points or 0.53%, trading at 58,706.85, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell by 130.05 points or 0.67%, reaching 19,336.50.
Akshay Chinchalkar from Axis Securities noted that Thursday had been another down day for the Nifty, with the market unable to surpass the key near-term hurdle around 24,700. “Yesterday’s drop had higher participation compared to the day before, which indicates that market participants are nervous,” he added.
In the Sensex pack, Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, NTPC, and Tata Motors were the top gainers. On the other hand, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Infosys, M&M, Titan, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, and L&T were the top losers.
Asian markets also faced downward pressure, with the markets of Hong Kong, Bangkok, China, Jakarta, and Japan trading in the red, while Seoul bucked the trend. In the US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ended 0.54% and 0.66% lower, respectively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 0.53% down in the previous trading session.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹3,560.01 crore in the Indian market on December 12, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,646.65 crore on the same day.
