Sensex sheds 200 points on weak global cues; Nifty below 18,500

Domestic equity markets opened lower on Monday, tracking sombre Asian market mood as investors were worried over protests against China's stringent COVID restrictions.

The BSE Sensex was trading 207 points or 0.33% lower at 62,087. Nifty50 was trading at 18,465, down 48 points or 0.26% at around 9.16 am.

“There are two positives which can impart resilience to the ongoing rally in the market: One, the steady decline in crude which has taken Brent crude to below $82. Two, the steady FPI buying (Rs 31630 crores so far in November) particularly in fundamentally strong segments like financials, IT, autos and capital goods,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

“These positives notwithstanding markets are likely to be in wait and watch mode for the Fed chief’s speech on Wednesday. Any hawkish statements from Powel will be negative since markets have factored in slower rate hikes taking the terminal rate around 5%. The high futures premium is indicative of the underlying bullishness in the market,” Vijayakumar added.

Among Sensex stocks, HDFC, HDFC Bank, TCS, Titan and IndusInd Bank were the top laggards, falling about 0.5-1%. Tata Steel, Asian, Paints, HUL, SBI, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank and Infosys also opened lower.

On the other hand, Wipro, Reliance, M&M, Maruti, Power Grid, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and NTPC opened with the gains.

Sectorally, Nifty Metal declined 0.96% while Nifty Auto surged 0.95%. Nifty Oil & Gas and Nifty Pharma also opened higher. Whereas, in the broader market, Nifty Midcap50 rose 0.45% and Smallcap50 advanced 0.47%.

US markets ended mixed on Friday as investors assessed prospects for less-aggressive central bank tightening and weighed China’s latest move to stimulate its economy. On Friday, Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 0.45% while S&P 500 ended flat and Nasdaq Composite declined 0.52%.

In early trade in Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.49%, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.89% and China’s Shanghai Composite declined 1.03%.

The Indian rupee surged 0.17% to 81.82 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, increased 0.41% to 106.39 level.

Brent crude February futures declined 2.95% to $81.25 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures decreased 2.92% to $74.06 a barrel.