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Indian equity benchmark indices opened marginally higher on Friday despite a sharp sell-off across global stock markets, as heavy losses in US technology stocks and weak Asian markets kept investors cautious.
The Nifty 50 opened at 24,538.20, gaining a marginal 1.60 points or 0.01 per cent, while the BSE Sensex started trading at 79,413.66, up 103.65 points or 0.13 per cent. However, weakness was visible in broader market indices, indicating limited participation in the early gains. The Nifty 100 was down 0.11 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 0.87 per cent and the Nifty Midcap 100 fell 0.54 per cent. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said the sharp fall in US markets was likely to affect most global markets, but India could be among the least impacted. "The blood bath in the US markets will impact most other markets today, but India is likely to be the least impacted. The big rout of 5.6% in Nasdaq was triggered on concerns of big slowdown in data centre spending since the Democrats are opposed to massive data centre investment. This tech rout, particularly the sharp deceleration in AI trade will turn out to be beneficial for India," he said. He said foreign institutional investors (FIIs) had purchased equities worth Rs 35,781 crore in the last five trading sessions, which could support the domestic market despite selling and profit booking by domestic institutional investors (DIIs). "It is important to note that the FIIs have bought equities for Rs 35781 crores in the last five trading days. Despite selling and profit booking by DIIs, the market is likely to remain resilient since FII buying will continue in the changed global market construct," Vijayakumar added. On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average recording their worst trading sessions since April 2025. The Nasdaq plunged 5.52 per cent to close at 24,315.00, falling more than 10 per cent below the record level it had reached last month and entering correction territory. The S&P 500 declined 4.36 per cent to settle at 7,353.73, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,833.06 points, or 3.44 per cent, to close at 51,523.06. The sharp losses erased the gains made during Wednesday's post-election rally. Among sectoral indices on the NSE, Nifty Auto was up 0.10 per cent, while Nifty IT declined 1.32 per cent. Nifty Private Bank fell 0.42 per cent, Nifty FMCG lost 0.59 per cent, Nifty Metal declined 0.87 per cent, Nifty Pharma was down 0.34 per cent and Nifty PSU Bank dropped 0.75 per cent. Meanwhile, Brent crude oil prices resumed their upward movement, rising 2.37 per cent and crossing USD 100 per barrel again at the time of reporting. Gold prices declined 1.32 per cent to Rs 1,42,192 per 10 grams for 24 karat, while silver prices fell 1.78 per cent to Rs 1,83,800 per kg. The weakness in global markets was also visible across Asia. South Korea's KOSPI fell more than 7 per cent to 5,035, while Taiwan's weighted index declined 8 per cent to 38,300. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 5.95 per cent to 57,445. Singapore's Straits Times index was down 2.20 per cent at 5,180, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index also traded lower during early trading. Dow Jones futures were down 0.59 per cent, indicating continued weakness in market sentiment. (ANI)
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