Market Opening Bell: Indices slip into red; SENSEX falls 260 pts, NIFTY50 slips below 22,600 mark

The equity benchmark indices on Friday, March 28, opened flat in a volatile session but later turned negative as investors remained cautious on rising trade war concerns.

At 9:41 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX was down 263.97 points, or 0.34%, at the 77,342.46 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 23,514.10 level, up 77.85 points, or 0.33%.

The market breadth was largely in favour of bulls, as 1,953 stocks advanced on the NSE out of 2,353 stocks traded during the opening session.

The market sentiment supported by the broader market as well as both midcap and smallcap indices were trading positively.

Tata Consumers, ONGC, Bharat Electronics, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Nestle India were the most contributing stocks on the NSE, surging as much as 3.41%.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) intensified their buying spree on Thursday as they bought equities worth ₹11,111 crore, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) too added ₹2,517 crore.

Crude oil prices extended their gains for the third week in a row, and gold prices, too, resumed their rally to record high levels amid uncertainty.

Globally, the US markets closed in the red amid escalated tariff wars. The Dow Jones & S&P 500 closed 0.3% lower, and NASDAQ fell 0.5%.

Elsewhere, the Asian markets also faced the heat of auto tariffs as Japanese and Korean automakers’ shares declined for the second consecutive day. The Japanese and Korean indices fell more than 1% on Friday morning.

As many as 2,504 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,803 stocks were trading in the green, only 631 in the red and 70 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, only 17 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 125 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 38 stocks hit their lower circuits, while 46 hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 3.38% lower at 12.85 levels.

The broader market extended their gains during the opening bell, with Nifty Midcap 100 trading 0.52% higher at 52,110.40 levels and Nifty Smallcap 100 at 16,232.40 levels, rising 0.70%.

The stock exchange took the move following the SEBI's consultation paper on the final settlement day (expiry day) for equity derivatives.

In its clarification, the company said that a significant part of the products supplied by the company and/or its subsidiaries to its various customers in the US are either manufactured in the US or are United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) compliant, and therefore, as per its present assessment, the said executive orders may not have any material impact on the financials of the company.

The Navratna defence public sector undertaking (PSU) has secured additional orders worth ₹1,385 crore since the last disclosure on March 12, 2025. Major orders include radar spares, radar upgradation, electronic voting machines, simulators, advanced land navigation systems and stabilisers for tanks, fire control systems for ship-based decoys, communication equipment, other spares, services, etc.

With these, BEL has now accumulated orders totalling ₹18,415 crore in the current financial year.