Dalal Street painted red on Friday morning, ahead of Diwali with the Sensex testing 83,300, falling 163.83 points and the Nifty declining 32.60 points to open at 25,552.70.
However, as markets progressed, both indices reversed course and tried to recover from the losses. The Sensex neared 83,600, and the Nifty tested 21,600, around 9:35 AM.
The top gainers in the market included stocks such as Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Titan and ITC and the laggards included stocks like Bajaj Finance, Trent, TCS, Kotak Bank and Tata Steel.
In the broader markets, the Nifty Midcap 50 fell by 0.25 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap index witnessed gains of 0.33 per cent. Sectorally, the Nifty IT index saw a sharp decline of 1.37 per cent and the Nifty Auto index saw gains of 0.56 per cent.
In the pre-open session, the markets witnessed marginal gains as the Sensex inched up 135.18, points to reach 83,332.48, and the Nifty rose 38.45 points to reach 25,546.85.
Notably, around 8:19 AM the Gift Nifty also indicated marginal gains of 2.50 points, rising to 25,603.
Reason Behind The Decline
Escalating tensions between the US and China are weighing on risk sentiment. Markets globally are getting jittery as trade war fears resurface.
Additionally, some investors might be booking gains after yesterday’s rally, especially in the banking sector, which outperformed.
Further, continued selling by foreign investors remains a concern. Even as inflows have shown signs of revival, reversals in sentiment can trigger fresh outflows.
Notably on Thursday, the Indian equity markets witnessed the Sensex climb close to 900 points and the Nifty touching a four-month high.
This rally was driven by strong performances in banking stocks too.
Previously, on Thursday, both the indices closed with notable gains as the Sensex soared over 850 points to end at 83,383.92 and the Nifty rang the closing bell nearly 250 points higher, settling above 25,500.
