Market opening: SENSEX down 300 points, NIFTY50 below 26,000 on weak global cues, Eternal top loser

The Indian equity market opened lower on Tuesday, December 16, tracking subdued global cues and a decline in IT and realty stocks. Further, weakness in the domestic currency added to investor nervousness.

The broader market was also trading lower in the early trade, with both Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 declining 0.46% and 0.58%, respectively.

Among sectors, except for Nifty FMCG (0.14%), all the gauges were opened in red. Nifty IT (-0.79%) was the biggest loser, followed by Nifty Realty (-0.78%), Nifty Metal (-0.72%), and Nifty Private Bank (-0.68%).

The rupee continues to slide as the Indian currency fell 5 paise to record all-time low of 90.83 against US dollar in early trade.

According to exchange data, on Monday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹1,468.32 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,792.25 crore on a net basis.

Globally, Asian equity markets were trading lower on Tuesday, extending recent losses as investor sentiment remained cautious ahead of a slew of key US and regional economic data releases.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.97%, Taiwan Weighted declined 1.65%, South Korea's KOSPI fell 1.83%, and China's Shanghai Composite tumbled 1.22%, while Japan's Nikkei was trading 1.17% lower.

On Wall Street, the main indices closed lower on Monday as investors were nervous ahead of key economic data expected later this week.

The S&P 500 index declined 0.16%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.09%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.59%.

As many as 2,701 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 884 advanced, 1,740 declined, and 77 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, 15 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 34 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 37 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 17 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 10.19 levels, falling 0.58%.

Eternal was the biggest laggard, declining 3.12%, followed by Axis Bank (-2.27%), HCL Technologies (-1.17%), Infosys (-1.12%) and Tata Steel (-1.05%).

On the contrary, Bharti Airtel (1.17%), Tata Consumer Products (1.06%), Apollo Hospitals (0.52%) SBI Life Insurance (0.5%) and Tata Motors PV (0.42%) were the top gainers on the 50-share index.