Sensex Falls 220 Points, Nifty Below 23,600 In Early Trade

After opening on a flat note, the domestic markets on Wednesday succumbed to the selling pressure and traded in negative territory. The BSE Sensex declined 221 points to 77,921 in the morning trade and the NSE Nifty fell by 72 points to trade at 23,571.

The BSE Sensex had opened higher by 126 points at 78,265.07 and the NSE Nifty traded up by 23 points at 23,665 in the opening trade. Global markets remain closed on account of the New Year celebrations.

Among the 30 Sensex companies, seven stocks were in green. Larsen & Toubro, Asian Paint, Infosys, HCL Tech and Mahindra & Mahindra were the top gainers rising by up to 0.61 per cent. However, among the top losers were Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, and Power Grid falling up to 1.39 per cent.

V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “The New Year begins on a sombre note for the Indian equity market. The near-term trend appears weak with the macro construct dominated by weak GDP and earnings growth. The headwinds from a strong dollar (the US dollar index is at 108.5 per cent) and high US bond yields will impact the market through more FII selling, at least in the early days of 2025. Even though FII selling is matched by DII buying, in this tug of war, in the near-term, sentiments are on the side of FIIs since valuations continue to be elevated and growth and earnings are yet to show signs of recovery.”