Market opening: NIFTY50 at 26,127, SENSEX falls 51 points as auto stocks drag; Nifty IT up 1%, Cipla top loser

The Indian benchmark indices opened marginally lower for the third straight session on Wednesday, January 7, as auto stocks dragged. Mixed cues from the Asian peers also kept the investors worried. 

The broader market was trading in green in the early trade, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.37% and 0.38%, respectively.

Sector-wise, Nifty Auto (-0.41%), Nifty Media (-0.28%) and Nifty PSU Bank (-0.27%) led the losses, while Nifty Consumer Durables (1.19%), Nifty IT (1.09%) and Nifty Metal (0.58%) emerged as the gainers.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹107.63 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,749.35 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, Asian equities paused their rally on Wednesday, with Japanese stocks edging lower as rising tensions with China weighed on investor sentiment.

Japan's Nikkei was trading down 0.59%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.97%, China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.29%, and South Korea's KOSPI was also trading up by 0.54%.

On Wall Street, the main indices climbed to fresh record highs on Tuesday, while the dollar inched up as investors shifted their focus to key economic data that could offer clues for the upcoming US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 484.90 points, or 0.99%, to end at 49,462.08; the S&P 500 surged 42.77 points, or 0.62%, to settle at 6,944.82; and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 151.35 points, or 0.65%, to end at 23,547.17.

As many as 2,714 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 1,447 advanced, 1,158 declined, and 109 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth is favourable towards advances.

Meanwhile, 66 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 43 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 35 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 17 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 10.14 levels, rising 1.19%.

As many as 15 stocks advanced, while 34 declined and one remained unchanged in the opening session on the NIFTY50 index.

Cipla was the biggest laggard, declining 2.43%, followed by Tata Motors PV (-1.84%), Bharti Airtel (-1.25%), HDFC Bank (-1.18%) and Bajaj Finserv (-0.98%).

On the flip side, Trent (3.55%), HCL Technologies (1.14%), Infosys (1.13%), Eternal (1.02%) and Hindalco Industries (0.96%) were the biggest gaining stocks on the 50-share index.