Market Opening Bell: Indices decline, NIFTY50 below 24,900 level, SENSEX slips 750 points; IT stocks drag

The Indian stock exchange opened lower on Tuesday, May 27, following its Asian peers, dragged down by IT, bank and auto stocks.

The broader market, however, remained mixed, with the NIFTY Midcap 100 index losing 0.06% and the NIFTY Smallcap 100 gauge rising 0.12% during the opening session.

Among sectors, Nifty IT was the top loser, slipping 0.96%, followed by Nifty Private Bank (-0.80%), Nifty FMCG (-0.65%), Nifty Auto (-0.63%) and Nifty Oil and Gas (-0.56%).

According to exchange data, on Monday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,745.72 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹135.98 crore worth of equities.

On the global front, the Asian markets were mostly trading lower on Tuesday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's KOSPI were down by 0.44% and 0.49%, respectively. The Shanghai Composite was trading 0.33% higher at the 3,335.76 level.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was seen at the 37,452.96 level, declining 0.21%, while Singapore's Straits Times was trading marginally higher by 0.07% at the 3,878.26 level.

The US markets remained closed on Monday to observe Memorial Day.

As many as 2,391 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 949 stocks were trading in the green, 1,363 in the red and 79 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, 22 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while only 10 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 47 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 24 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 4.35% lower at 18.81 levels.

Grasim was the biggest laggard, falling 1.9%, followed by NTPC (-1.54%), Axis Bank (-1.52%), UltraTech Cement (-1.47%) and Tata Consumer Products (-1.2%).

Bharat Electronics (0.34%), Hindalco Industries (0.33%), Dr Reddy’s (0.22%), Apollo Hospitals (0.05%) and Bajaj Auto (0.01%) were the only gainers on the 50-share index.