Mumbai: Indian equity indices opened lower on Friday following weak cues from the US markets.
At 9:24 a.m., the Sensex was down 142 points, or 0.17 percent, at 81,469, and the Nifty was down 36 points, or 0.12 percent, at 24,960.
Selling was seen in banking stocks. Nifty Bank was down 204 points, or 0.40 percent, at 51,326.
In the Sensex pack, HCL Tech, Wipro, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Titan, Infosys, JSW Steel, TCS and IndusInd Bank were top gainers.
Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki, HUL, Nestle and SBI were top losers.
The midcap and smallcap indexes were trading in the green. The Nifty midcap 100 index was up 79 points, or 0.13 percent, at 58,995, and the Nifty smallcap index was up 39 points, or 0.18 percent, at 18,939.
Among the sectoral indices, IT, PSU Bank, pharma, metal, media and commodities were major gainers. Auto, fin service, FMCG, realty and energy were major losers.
Most Asian markets were trading in the green. Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Jakarta were major gainers. The US market closed in the red on Thursday.
According to the market experts, “The Market is likely to remain volatile in the near term, alternating between FII selling and DII buying. Attractive valuations in other markets, particularly in Chinese stocks, will facilitate further selling by FIIs in India since Indian valuations are elevated. Concerns of earnings downgrades in H2 FY 25 render Indian valuations difficult to sustain.”
“A healthy trend in the market is the leading private sector banks getting accumulated and showing resilience even in a weak market. They added that this market is the most attractively valued segment where there is no valuation comfort,” they added.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling on October 10, selling equities worth Rs 4,926 crore. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors also extended their buying, buying equities worth Rs 3,878 crore on the same day.
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–IANS
