Indian stock market opens lower, Nifty below 23,300

Mumbai: The Indian stock market opened in red on Monday amid weak global cues as selling was seen in the realty, metal, FMCG, PSU bank and auto sectors.

At around 9.34 am, Sensex was trading at 76,821.43 after dropping 557.48 points or 0.72 per cent, while Nifty was trading at 23,257.65 after declining 173.85 points or 0.74 per cent.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 532 stocks were trading in green, while 1,744 stocks were in red.

Nifty Bank was down 279 points or 0.57 per cent at 48,455.15. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 53,934.30 after dropping 651.45 points or 1.19 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 17,472.70 after declining 172.85 points or 0.98 per cent.

According to experts, market will continue to be under pressure from the strong headwinds.

The jobs data from the US with 2.56 lakh job creation in December against expectations of 1.65 lakhs means the rate cut expectations in 2025 is now down to one.

“With the unemployment in the US down to 4.1 per cent the economy doesn’t need any stimulus. This good economic news is turning out to be bad news for markets which were discounting many rate cuts this year,” according to market watchers.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, Zomato, M&M, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Tata Motors, ITC, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top losers. Whereas, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, HCL Tech and TCS were the top gainers.

The Dow Jones declined 1.63 per cent to close at 41,938.45. The S&P 500 declined 1.54 per cent to 5,827.00 and the Nasdaq declined 1.63 per cent to close at 19,161.63 in the last trading session on Friday.

In the Asian markets, Jakarta, Seoul, Hong Kong, China and Bangkok were trading in red.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net seller on sixth consecutive day, as they sold equities worth Rs 2,254.68 crore on January 10, on the other hand domestic institutional bought equities worth Rs 3,961.92 crore on the same day.

The rupee weakened 5 paise to open at record low of 86.20 against the US Dollar at open on Monday. On Friday, the rupee closed at record low level for three days in a row.

—IANS