Sensex, Nifty fall in early trade; all eyes on Budget, Fed outcome

A day ahead of two key events - Union Budget and Fed meeting outcome - Sensex and Nifty were trading with a negative bias with most sectors in the red.

BSE Sensex was trading 192 points or 0.32% lower at 59,307 while Nifty50 was at 17,626, down 23 points or 0.13% around 9.23 am.

Among Sensex stocks, Tech Mahindra, L&T, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and NTPC were the top losers, falling about 1-2.5%. HCL Tech, Infosys, Nestle, TCS and Wipro also opened with losses. However, SBI, Reliance, M&M and IndusInd Bank opened with gains.

Sectorally, Nifty Auto rose 0.48% and Nifty PSU Bank surged 0.45%. Meanwhile, Nifty Oil & Gas and Nifty IT opened lower. In the broader market, Nifty Smallcap50 rose 0.19% and Nifty Midcap50 surged 0.13%.

Adani Group stocks continued to be under pressure for the fourth day with three of the group companies hitting a lower circuit.

Adani Power on Tuesday fell 5% to hit a lower circuit at Rs 223,8, while Adani Wilmar too declined 5% to hit a lower circuit of 5% at Rs 466.45. Adani Total Gas hit a lower circuit of 10%. However, ACC, Adani Enterprises and Ambuja Cement were trading marginally higher.

Expert View
"The Budget tomorrow and the Fed decision on interest rates by evening tomorrow will have a big impact on markets. A positive, as we go into the Budget, is that instead of the usual pre-Budget rally on expectations, this time we had a market correction triggered by the Adani crisis," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

"There has been overreaction in banking stocks with Bank Nifty correcting sharply by 6.2% in the last 3 sessions. High-quality banking stocks present a good buying opportunity. Signals from the US indicate that Indian IT will do well in 2023," Vijayakumar said.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said, "Ahead of the Union Budget/US Fed meet outcome, the markets could remain volatile with an upward bias for the next few sessions. 17760 could be the resistance for the Nifty while 17493-17542 band could offer support."

Global Markets
Major US stock indexes sank on Monday, weighed down by declines in technology and other megacap shares, as investors looked toward a major week of events including central bank meetings and a slew of earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.77% to 33,717, the S&P 500 lost 1.30% to 4,018 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.96% to 11,394.

Asian shares traded cautiously on Tuesday as investors braced for an eventful week that includes central bank meetings, a slew of earnings reports and key US economic data.

Japan's Nikkei stock index slid 0.1% while Australian shares were up 0.2%. China's blue-chip CSI300 index remained flat in early trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index opened up 0.4%.

Currency Watch
The Indian rupee fell by 9 paise to 81.61 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, declined 0.02% to 102.25 level.

Crude Price
Oil prices steadied in early Asian trade on Tuesday after falling by more than 2% in the previous session on the threat of further interest rate hikes and continued Russian crude flows.

Brent crude futures gained 28 cents to $85.18 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 9 cents to $77.99.

(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)