Market opening: NIFTY50 opens flat down at 25,804, SENSEX falls 79 pts as auto, pharma stocks drag; Sun Pharma, M&M top losers

The Indian stock market opened flat down on Thursday, December 18, tracking weak global cues and a fall in the auto and pharma stocks.  

The broader market was trading in red in the early trade, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 slipping 0.09% and 0.12%, respectively.

Among sectors, except for Nifty IT (1.04%) and Nifty PSU Bank (0.09%), all the other gauges were in red. Nifty Auto took the lead among losers, falling 1.03%, followed by Nifty Pharma (-0.66%) and Nifty Media (-0.41%).

Volatility in the domestic currency is also making the investors worried. On Thursday, the rupee opened 6 paise up to 90.32 against the US dollar in early trade.

According to exchange data, on Wednesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth ₹1,171.71 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹768.94 crore on a net basis.

Globally, Asian markets largely traded in the red on Thursday, led by declines in technology stocks, as investors braced for a potentially hawkish stance from the Bank of Japan.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.42%, Singapore's Straits Times dipped 0.19%, Japan's Nikkei declined 1.23%, and South Korea's KOSPI slipped 1.97%. The Shanghai Composite, however, was trading 0.16% higher.

On Wall Street, the major indices ended lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq sliding to three-week lows.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.47%, and the S&P 500 declined 1.16%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.81%.

As many as 2,681 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 721 advanced, 1,882 declined, and 78 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, 35 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 118 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 24 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 21 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 9.82 levels, falling 0.22%.

As many as 18 stocks advanced, while 31 declined and two remained unchanged in the opening session on the NIFTY50 index.

Sun Pharma was the biggest laggard, slumping 2.19%, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra (-1.57%), Tata Motors PV (-1.49%), Bajaj Auto (-1.17%), and Eicher Motors (-0.77%).

On the flip side, Wipro was the biggest gainer, rising 1.36% on the 50-share index. Infosys (1.25%), Shriram Finance (0.9%), HCL Technologies (0.9%), and TCS (0.8%) were the other top contributors.