Market opening: NIFTY50 at 25,374, SENSEX down 223 points as IT, FMCG drag; Adani group stocks soar

The Indian stock market snapped its three-day rally and opened lower on Friday, September 19, dragged by IT and FMCG stocks. Market investors turn cautious with India and the US trade negotiations underway.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that the trade talks between India and the US are progressing and are moving in the right direction.

Meanwhile, all the Adani stocks were the major contributors in the early session following capital markets regulator SEBI's ruling on Thursday. SEBI, in its final order on Thursday, cleared Gautam Adani and his group of stock manipulation allegations made by US short-seller Hindenburg Research.

The broader market opened mixed, with Nifty Midcap 100 advancing 0.15% while Nifty Smallcap 100 falling 0.07%.

Among sectors, Nifty IT was the top loser, declining 0.31%, followed by Nifty Private Bank (-0.28%) and Nifty FMCG (-0.18%). However, PSU Bank (0.63%), Nifty Pharma (0.27%) and Nifty Realty (0.24%) were the gainers.

According to exchange data, on Thursday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth ₹366.69 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹3,326.56 crore on a net basis.

Globally, Asian markets traded mixed on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei touching a new record high ahead of the Bank of Japan’s anticipated decision to keep rates unchanged.

Japan's Nikkei was down 0.93%, South Korea's KOSPI lost 0.67%, and the Shanghai Composite was seen flat. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was trading higher by 0.17%.

On Wall Street, the key indices closed at record highs on Thursday, a day after the US Federal Reserve implemented a quarter-point rate cut.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 124.10 points, or 0.27%, to 46,142.42, the S&P 500 advanced 31.61 points, or 0.48%, to close at6,631.96 and the Nasdaq Composite surged 209.40 points, or 0.94%, to settle at 22,470.73.

As many as 2,590 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 1,399 were trading in the green, 1,103 were trading in the red, and 88 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth was favourable to advances.

Meanwhile, 36 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 10 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Almost 34 stocks hit their lower circuits, and 14 stocks hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 0.85% up at 9.97 levels.

Nestle India was the biggest losing stock, declining 1.02%, followed by TCS (-0.93%), Grasim (-0.83%), Power Grid (-0.73%) and ICICI Bank (-0.70%).

On the flip side, Adani Enterprises (4.16%), Adani Ports (1.93%), Shriram Finance (1.24%), Jio Financial Services (1.09%) and HDFC Life Insurance (0.82%) were the top gainers on the 50-share index.