Sensex falls over 200 points, Nifty below 17,850 as weak global cues, Adani saga roil sentiments

The Nifty 50 index fell 61 points or 0.34% to 17,832, while the S&P BSE Sensex declined 182 points or 0.30% to 60,624, as of 9.22 am.

Following the negative cues from global markets, Indian equity indices opened lower on Friday, dragged by index heavyweights Reliance, ICICI Bank and IT stocks.
The Nifty 50 index fell 61 points or 0.34% to 17,832, while the S&P BSE Sensex declined over 231 points or 0.38% to 60,570, as of 9.43 am.
Among Sensex stocks, HCL Tech, Infosys, Tata Steel, Wipro and Tech Mahindra opened with cuts. ICICI Bank, Reliance, TCS, NTPC and Titan also opened lower.
On the other hand, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, L&T, M&M, Sun Pharma and UltraTech Cement opened with gains.
Sectorally, Nifty IT fell 0.75% and Nifty Metal dropped 0.69%. Nifty Oil & Gas and Nifty Pharma also opened lower. Whereas, in the broader market, Nifty Smallcap50 rose 0.18%, while Nifty Midcap50 declined 0.29%

Expert View

"With the Budget, monetary policy and earnings season behind us, there are no major triggers to take the market forward. Rallies are likely to be sold into since FIIs have been sustained sellers in the market from the beginning of 2023," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial services , said.

"Q3 results from the broader market indicate pressure on margins. Many mid and smallcap results are disappointing. Now, safety is in large caps. Investors should focus on segments where earnings visibility is good, like capital goods, IT and banking," Vijayakumar suggested.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said, "Nifty made another higher bottom on Feb 09 in the short term time frame. It could now face resistance from the 17972-18016 band while the 17652-17721 band could offer support in the near term."

GLOBAL MARKETS

US stocks closed lower on Thursday, following another mixed batch of profit reports from companies, as rising yields in the bond market raised the pressure on Wall Street. The S&P 500 fell 0.9% after erasing a gain of about the same size from the morning. The Dow lost 0.7% and the Nasdaq gave up 1%.

Asia-Pacific stocks fell on Friday, slumping toward a second weekly loss as investors fretted about the potential for further Federal Reserve tightening and the effect on the US economy.

Mainland Chinese blue chips lost 0.41% and the Hang Seng tumbled 1.19%. Japan's Nikkei bucked the trend with a 0.5% rise, boosted by some strong earnings reports.

Crude Price

Oil prices fell in early trade on Friday but were headed for a weekly gain with the market continuing to seesaw between fears of a recession hitting the United States and hopes for strong fuel demand recovery in China, the world's top oil importer.

Brent crude futures fell 0.43%, to $84.14 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dropped 0.54% to $77.64.

Currency Watch

The Indian rupee fell by 12 paise to 82.63 against the US dollar in early trade.

The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, increased 0.15% to 103.37 level.

(With inputs from agencies)

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

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