Market opening: SENSEX down 170 points, NIFTY50 below 26,000 as consumer stocks drag; HUL, Nestle top losers

The Indian stock market opened marginally lower on Wednesday, December 3, despite positive global cues, as a weakening rupee and continued foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiment.

Continuing its slide against the greenback, the Indian rupee hit a fresh record low of 90.14 against the US dollar in the early trade on Wednesday. Further, investors remain cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s December monetary policy meeting, slated to start today.

The broader market was also trading in red in the early trade, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 declining 0.35% and 0.34%, respectively.

Among sectors, Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.64%), Nifty FMCG (-0.58%), and Nifty PSU Bank (-0.56%) were the top losers, while Nifty IT (0.77%), Nifty Pharma (0.36%), and Nifty Metal (0.17%) gained.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹3,642.30 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹4,645.94 crore on a net basis.

Globally, most of the indices in Asia were trading with gains on Wednesday as investors wait for fresh triggers. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.86%, and China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.09%, while South Korea's KOSPI was up 1.21%, and Japan's Nikkei was also trading 1.58% higher.

Wall Street ended higher on Tuesday on hopes that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates later this month. US stocks advanced to record their sixth gain in seven sessions in muted trading on Tuesday, buoyed by gains in technology shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.39%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.25%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.59%.

As many as 2,657 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 909 advanced, 1,672 declined, and 76 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, 21 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 81 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 33 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 20 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 11.05 levels, falling 1.6%.

Hindustan Unilever (-2.21%), Nestle India (-1.32%), HDFC Life Insurance (-1.27%), Max Healthcare (-1.22%) and Shriram Finance (-1.07%) were the biggest losing stocks.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy’s (1.23%), TCS (1.19%), Wipro (1.17%), Infosys (0.89%), and Eternal (0.7%) were top gainers on the 50-share index.