Market Opening Bell: Benchmark indices slip as FMCG stocks drag, NIFTY50 trades below 24,800 level, SENSEX down 156 pts; ITC falls 1.3%

The Indian stock market opened lower on Wednesday, May 28, dragged down by consumer stocks following large block deals.

Diversified conglomerate ITC declined as much as 4.81% on the NSE in the opening deals as 2.57% equity, i.e., 33.25 crore shares, changed hands at the block deal for ₹13,863 crore, according to news reports.

Following this, the NIFTY FMCG sector declined 1.35%—becoming the top loser among sectors.

Meanwhile, the broader market was trading positively, with the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index rising 0.38% and the NIFTY Midcap 100 advancing 0.05% during the early trades.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹348.45 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹10,104.66 crore worth of equities.

On the global front, the US markets ended with sharp gains after President Donald Trump delayed his tariffs on the European Union, giving a boost to investors' sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 740.58 points, or 1.78%, to 42,343.65, the S&P 500 rose 118.72 points, or 2.05%, to 5,921.54 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 461.96 points, or 2.47%, to 19,199.16.

Tracking the US indices, the Asian stocks were mostly trading positively. Except for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which slipped 0.60% to 23,242.43 levels, all the other indices remained in the green. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was trading 0.35% higher at the 37,854.41 level, while the Shanghai Composite was up marginally by 0.07% to the 3,342.93 level. South Korea’s Kospi index also gained 1.72% to 2,682.06 levels.

As many as 2,435 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,363 stocks were trading in the green, 1,004 in the red and 68 shares remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of positive.

Meanwhile, 30 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while only 9 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 34 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 23 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 1.13% up at 18.75 levels.

Nestlé India was the top losing stock, tumbling 1.36%, followed by ITC (-1.35%), JSW Steel (-1.19%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-1.02%) and Titan (-1.01%).

On the flip side, Jio Financial Services (1.10%), HDFC Life Insurance (0.61%), Infosys (0.51%), SBI Life Insurance (0.49%) and Dr Reddy’s (0.42%) were among the top gainers on the 50-share index.