Sensex, Nifty open marginally higher tracking global cues

Indian equity indices opened marginally higher on Tuesday amid the US banking crisis and ahead of crucial inflation data due later in the day. The gains were led by HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Infosys.

The Nifty 50 index rose 22 points or 0.13% to 17,176, while the S&P BSE Sensex surged 90 points or 0.16% to 58,328, as of 9.21 am.

From the Sensex pack, Infosys, L&T, ITC, Titan, and Tata Steel opened with gains, rising about 0.5%. UltraTech Cement, TCS, Reliance and Nestle also opened with gains. On the other hand, M&M, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Bank and Asian Paints opened with cuts.

Shares of Gautam Adani's flagship entity Adani Enterprises opened over 6% lower on BSE. Meanwhile, Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission, Adani Power, Adani Total Gas and NDTV opened with a 5% lower circuit.

Sector-wise, Nifty Auto fell 0.95% and Nifty Metal declined 0.93%. Financials, media, realty, consumer durables and oil & gas stocks also opened with losses. In the broader market, Nifty Smallcap50 dropped 0.39% and Nifty Midcap50 plunged 0.55%.

Experts View
"Markets have a tendency to overreact- both on the upside and downside. What we are witnessing now is an overreaction on the downside. Concerns of a financial contagion are overdone. A positive fallout of the SVB crisis is that the Fed will go slow on rate hikes," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

"An important factor that investors should keep in mind is that the Indian banking system is strong and least vulnerable to a financial crisis even though sentimental impact is possible. Investors can wait for this storm to pass," Vijayakumar said.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said, "Nifty ended at the lowest since mid-October yesterday. A breach of 17,087 level on the Nifty could result in a fall towards 16,747. Upmoves could face resistance at 17,325."

Global Markets
Sliding bank shares dragged Wall Street down on Monday with investors worried about contagion from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, but trade was choppy and the Nasdaq composite actually ended higher as some sectors benefited from hopes the Federal Reserve could ease up on interest rates hikes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.28% to 31,819, the S&P 500 lost 0.15% to 3,856 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.45% to 11,189.

Asian shares declined Tuesday, as investors around the world watched to see what's next following the second and third-largest bank failures in US history.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped nearly 2.0% to 27,287, extending losses from the day before. South Korea's Kospi fell 1.9% to 2,365. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.2% to 19,463. The Shanghai Composite declined 0.7% to 3,245.

Crude price falls
Oil prices slipped on Tuesday, extending the previous day's slide, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank startled equities markets and raised worries about a fresh financial crisis.

Brent crude futures fell 1.03% to $79.94 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) dropped 1.10% to $73.98 a barrel. On Monday Brent fell to its lowest since early January, while WTI dropped to its lowest since December.

Rupee Weakens
The Indian rupee fell 4 paise to $82.27 against the US dollar in early trade, tracking losses in Asian equities and currencies on concerns over the spillover fears after the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank.

The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, rose 0.27% to 103.87 level.

(With inputs from agencies)

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