Mumbai: The Indian benchmark indices opened with notable losses on Friday, amid weak global cues and FII selling.
As of 9.25 am, Sensex was down 532 points, or 0.64 per cent, at 82,778 and Nifty dipped 162 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 25,347.
The broadcap indices outperformed benchmarks in terms of losses, with the Nifty Midcap 100 down 0.89 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 losing 1.26 per cent.
SBI Life Insurance, Trent, Apollo Hospitals, ICICI Bank were among the major gainers in the Nifty Pack, while losers included TCS, Titan Company, Tata Consumer and Shriram Finance.
Nifty Consumer Durables was the biggest sectoral loser, down 1.38 per cent. All the sectoral indices were trading in the red, with IT, auto and realty slipping over 1 per cent.
Analysts said that huge shorting by FIIs are overpowering the DII and investor buying in the market. The success of the FII strategy of sustained selling in India and moving money to cheaper markets has emboldened them to continue the strategy and continue shorting the market, they added.
“Short covering can lead to trend reversal but there are no immediate triggers for that in sight. FII selling has reduced the prices of fairly valued large caps particularly in banking and pharmaceuticals where growth prospects continue to be bright,” said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.
India Inc’s second-quarter FY26 earnings, however, showed a stronger-than-anticipated performance with a 14 percent year-on-year earnings rise by companies in key sectors, especially midcaps.
The US markets ended in the red zone overnight, as Nasdaq dipped 1.9 per cent, the S&P 500 declined 1.12 per cent, and the Dow lost 0.84 per cent.
Asian markets also slipped into losses tracking the selloff in US stocks amid concerns over expensive valuations of artificial intelligence companies.
Most of the Asian markets were trading in red during the morning session. While China’s Shanghai index lost 0.17 per cent, and Shenzhen dipped 0.17 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei lost 2.16 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.98 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 2.57 per cent.
On the Thursday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 3,263 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of equities worth Rs 5,284 crore.
(IANS)
