Indian stock market opened sharply lower on Thursday, following global market trends.
The BSE Sensex opened 606.77 points lower, or 0.76%, at 79,542.10. The Nifty 50 at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fell by 182.50 points, or 0.75%, to 24,232.00.
The Nifty Midcap index also dropped, opening at 56,439.80, down 433 points, or 0.76%. Similarly, the Nifty Bank index opened lower at 50,762.30.
Sectoral indices at NSE, including Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, IT, Metal, Pharma, PSU Banks, Private Banks, Realty, Healthcare, Consumer Durables, and Oil & Gas, all opened in the negative. However, Media and Auto sectors managed to stay in positive territory.
Market analysts attribute the decline to the global sentiment shift following disappointing earnings reports from Alphabet and Tesla, which has influenced market performance worldwide.
“Global sentiment getting hit. Rotation from big tech to underperforming sectors had started in the US as part of the “Trump Trade”. Then, results came in soft for Alphabet/Google and Tesla. That raised further questions on valuations for Big Tech and AI investments which have been on a massive scale,” said Ajay Bagga, a banking and market expert.
“Indian market futures are indicating a weak start, sentiment was hurt by an increase in taxes on investor profits, and foreign institutions have been sellers for the last two days. However, the domestic institutions, who are sitting on a large cash position have been buying in this dip, providing a recovery to the markets on both the last two days, he added.
Varun Aggarwal MD, Profit Idea said, “Market sentiment remains cautious with technical indicators suggesting potential for further downside if key support levels are breached. Investors are closely watching global cues and economic data for market direction amid ongoing volatility.”
The contrasting performance between the benchmark indices and broader markets highlights divergent investor sentiment amid budgetary and earnings scenarios.
In the last five trading days, the BSE Sensex has fallen 0.79 or 634.86 points, while the Nifty at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has seen a decline of 0.51 percent or 125.60 points in the same period.
In global markets, Asian indices including Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s Kospi saw significant declines, mirroring losses on Wall Street where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped sharply to multi-week lows. Tesla and Alphabet posted notable declines, contributing to Nasdaq’s largest single-day percentage drop since October 2022.
(inputs from ANI)