Market opening: SENSEX, NIFTY50 open marginally lower as IT stocks drag; HCL Technologies, Infosys among top losers, VIX up over 6%

The Indian benchmark indices opened flat down on Monday, January 5, dragged by IT stocks following Trump’s new tariff threat to India. Market investors were also cautious following the Venezuela conflict after the US captured its president, Nicolás Maduro, with Donald Trump vowing to "run the country" until there is a "proper" transition of power.

The broader market was trading mixed in early deals, with the Nifty Midcap 100 falling 0.03% while the Nifty Smallcap 100 gaining 0.35%.

Among sectors, Nifty IT declined 1.47%, followed by Nifty FMCG (-0.09%) and Nifty Pharma (-0.04%). On the other hand, Nifty Media (0.8%), Nifty PSU Bank (0.78%) and Nifty Metal (0.66%) were the top gainers.

According to exchange data, on Friday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth ₹289.80 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹677.38 crore on a net basis.

Globally, most of the Asian markets were trading higher as investors shrugged off consequences of US military action in Venezuela.

In Monday's trade, Japan's Nikkei rose 2.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.3%, China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.89% and South Korea's KOSPI jumped 2.5%.

On Wall Street, the main indices eked out small gains on Friday in a wobbly day of trading to kick off the new year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.66%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped 0.03%.

As many as 2,786 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,052 advanced, 1,637 declined, and 97 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth is in favour of declines.

Meanwhile, 96 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 35 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 34 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 40 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 10.05 levels, rising 6.34%.

As many as 25 stocks advanced, while 25 were trading lower in the opening session on the NIFTY50 index.

HCL Technologies was the biggest losing stock, falling 2.8%, followed by Infosys (-2.35%), Wipro (-2.23%), Tech Mahindra (-1.3%) and Tata Consultancy Services (-1.06%).

On the flip side, Bharat Electronics (1.62%), Axis Bank (1.35%), Tata Steel (1.15%), Hindalco Industries (0.98%), and Asian Paints (0.92%) were the top gaining stocks on the 50-share index.