Market opening: SENSEX falls 179 pts, NIFTY50 below 25,900 on weak global cues, Eternal, Apollo Hospitals top losers

The Indian equity market opened lower for the fifth consecutive session on Tuesday, December 30, pressured by weak global cues and continued foreign fund outflows that kept investor sentiment subdued.

The broader market was also trading lower in the early trade, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 declining 0.31% and 0.4%, respectively.

Except for Nifty Metal (0.18%), all the other sectoral indices were in red in the opening session. Nifty PSU Bank (-0.64%), Nifty Realty (-0.62%), Nifty Media (-0.58%), Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.5%) and Nifty FMCG (-0.26%) were the top losers among sectors.

According to exchange data, on Monday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹2,759.89 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,643.85 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, most of the indices in Asia were trading lower as they snapped their seven-day winning streak following a technology-led selloff on Wall Street overnight.

 Japan's Nikkei was trading 0.16%, China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.1%, South Korea's KOSPI lost 0.06%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.43%.

On Wall Street, the main indices ended lower on Monday as heavyweight technology stocks retreated from last week's gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.51%, the S&P 500 index dropped 0.35%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index slipped 0.5%.

As many as 2,676 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 891 advanced, 1,685 declined, and 100 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 64 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 31 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 31 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 9.86 levels, rising 1.38%.

As many as 41 stocks declined, while only 9 advanced in the opening session on the NIFTY50 index.

Eternal was the biggest laggard, falling 1.63%, followed by Apollo Hospitals (-1%), Tata Consumer Durables (-0.88%), Jio Financial Services (-0.7%) and UltraTech Cement (-0.69%).

On the flip side, Shriram Finance (1.36%), Tata Motors PV (0.49%), Bharat Electronics (0.36%), Hindalco Industries (0.34%) and Adani Ports (0.25%) were the top gainers on the 50-share index.