Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened lower on Friday, dragged down by weak global cues and caution ahead of the Bihar election results.
Market sentiment was further weighed by persistent foreign fund outflows, traders said.
In early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 303.63 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 84,175.04, while the NSE Nifty fell 82.65 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 25,796.50.
Among the Sensex constituents, Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles arm, Infosys, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, HCL Technologies, ICICI Bank, TCS, ITC, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Larsen & Toubro and Bharti Airtel were among the major losers.
Gainers included Eternal, Bharat Electronics, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, SBI, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Trent, NTPC and Bajaj Finance.
“The market will be closely watching the Bihar election outcome. However, any reaction is likely to be short-lived. Over the medium to long term, fundamentals—especially earnings growth—will drive the trend,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
He added that India’s relative underperformance this year is unlikely to persist, noting that despite its recent weakness, the Nifty remains the best-performing large global index over the past five years.
“The dip in corporate earnings in FY25 and high valuations have weighed on the market this year, but this setup is poised to improve,” he said.
Across Asia, equities traded sharply lower. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 2.2 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4 per cent, and China’s SSE Composite edged down 0.16 per cent.
US markets also closed mostly lower overnight.
“The Nasdaq fell 2.3 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped 1.7 per cent, and the Dow declined 1.7 per cent—the steepest slide in over a month—amid uncertainty over the release of key US economic data following the prolonged government shutdown,” said Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities.
He noted that recent Federal Reserve commentary has dampened expectations of a December rate cut, contributing to the global selloff.
Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers for the fourth consecutive session, offloading shares worth ₹383.68 crore on Thursday. Domestic institutional investors, meanwhile, continued their buying spree with purchases of ₹3,091.87 crore.
Despite the weak start, the Sensex eventually ended the day with a marginal gain of 12.16 points at 84,478.67, while the Nifty closed just 3.35 points higher at 25,879.15.
