Market opening: NIFTY50 tests 25,000, SENSEX drops 267 points on weak global cues; Tata Motors, TechM top losers

The Indian equity market opened lower on Wednesday, September 24, extending its losses for the fourth consecutive session amid weak global cues and continued outflow by the foreign investors.

The broader market was also trading lower, with both Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 tumbling 0.18% and 0.12%, respectively.

Among sectors, Nifty Auto (-0.64%) led the loser’s pack, followed by Nifty IT (-0.58%) and Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.46%). However, Nifty PSU Bank gained 1.10% in the opening session.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹3,551.19 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹2,670.87 crore worth of equities.

Globally, most of the Asian markets were trading lower on Wednesday, taking cues from a weak closing of the US markets after comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave little hints about the future path of rate cuts.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.5%, Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.2%, and South Korea's KOSPI dropped 0.95%. While Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4% and China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.21%.

On Wall Street, the main indices snapped their three-day winning streak on Tuesday as investors resorted to profit booking in recent outperforming shares from the big tech space.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 88.76 points, or 0.19%, to close at 46,292.78; the S&P 500 fell 36.83 points, or 0.55%, to end at 6,656.92; and the Nasdaq Composite declined 215.50 points, or 0.95%, to settle at 22,573.47.

As many as 2,618 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 979 were trading in the green, 1,556 were trading in the red, and 83 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market breadth was in favour of declines.

Meanwhile, 64 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 22 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 42 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 18 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 1.34% lower at 10.77 levels.

Tata Motors was the biggest laggard, falling 1.48%, followed by Tech Mahindra (-1.43%), Hero MotoCorp (-1.04%), Wipro (-1.04%) and Bajaj Auto (-0.82%).

Trent (0.59%), State Bank of India (0.38%), Maruti Suzuki (0.21%), Asian Paints (0.11%) and Adani Ports (0.10%) were the only gainers on the 50-share index.