NIFTY50, SENSEX today: Wall Street cues, FII activity, key things to know before markets open on January 14

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open lower on Wednesday, January 14, as indicated by GIFT NIFTY futures. NIFTY futures at GIFT City in Ahmedabad fell 47 points to 25,743 despite weak cues from Asian markets.

The Indian equity benchmarks resumed their downward journey after a day's pause in the previous session. The SENSEX fell as much as 615 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 25,603 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Axis Bank and Trent.

The benchmarks, however, staged recovery in the second half of the session on the back of buying interest in Eternal, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Tata Consultancy Services.

The SENSEX ended 250 points lower at 83,628 and NIFTY50 index declined 58 points to 25,732.

Asian markets

Asian shares were trading higher on Wednesday with Japan's Nikkei rising over 1.6% to hit record high of 54,462 as weaker yen against the US dollar supported up move. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 03% while South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.235.

Wall Street update

The US markets wrapped the rally at record high levels and closed in the red on Tuesday. The Dow Jones fell 398 points or 0.8%, the S&P500 fell 0.9% and the NASDAQ ended in losses of 0.1%. Finance stocks primarily led Tuesday’s losses as investors grew concerned over the impact of interest rate caps on the lending companies.

The US CPI inflation came in below expectations at 0.2%, which boosted the hopes for a rate cut in the coming monetary policy meeting. However, shrugged off the hopes and still sounded cautious about the US markets, as the concerns over the Federal Reserve’s independence could undermine the efforts and take the economy back into a high inflation era.

Among the losers, JPMorgan Chase shares fell over 4% after the bank also warned that a 10% cap on the interest rate could severely hurt the economy and consumers. The warning by the bank led to broader weakness in the market. Jamie Dimon also warned that the Federal Reserve’s independence could push the economy back into the high inflation trap.

FII/DII activity

Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth ₹1,500 crore on Tuesday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹1,182 crore, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

The FIIs have so far this month sold shares worth ₹18,585 crore, according to the data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

Stocks to watch

The initial public offering of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd got subscribed a massive 146.81 times on the final day of bidding on Tuesday, led by heavy investors' participation.

The ₹1,071-crore IPO received bids for 50,93,44,51,200 shares against 34,69,46,500 shares on offer, as per NSE data.

"Tuticorin is emerging as a key economic hub in South India, driven by its strong industrial base and new investments.

"The growth of mega projects in the automobile and energy sectors has created significant long-stay demand, making it an ideal market for Ginger's presence. We are delighted to partner with R Gajendran for this project," IHCL Executive Vice President - Real Estate and Development, Suma Venkatesh said in a statement.

With the addition of this hotel, IHCL will have 28 hotels in Tamil Nadu, including 10 under development.

The company had posted a profit after tax of ₹724 crore in October-December FY25.

Total income rose to ₹6,610 crore in the quarter under review from ₹5,883 crore in the year-ago period, ICICI Lombard said in a regulatory filing to stock exchanges.

Its gross direct premium income during the quarter rose to ₹7,433 crore from ₹6,474 crore in the year-ago period.

Other aggregators, like Zepto and Swiggy-owned Instamart, are also expected to follow suit in the coming days, sources told PTI.

Sources said the decision to remove the '10-minute' delivery deadline came after Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya persuaded the delivery aggregators in this regard.

Mandaviya chaired a meeting last week with leading platforms, including Blinkit, Zepto, Zomato and Swiggy, to address concerns related to delivery timelines, they added.

Geopolitical update

President Donald Trump was consulting with his national security team Tuesday about next steps with Iran as he looked to get a better understanding of the number of Iranian citizens who have been killed and arrested in more than two weeks of unrest throughout the country.

Trump said he believes that the killing is “significant” and that his administration would “act accordingly.” He added that he believed the Iranian government was “badly misbehaving.”

Trade setup

On the technical front, the NIFTY50 continues to trade below the 20-EMA level of 25,977 on the daily charts, indicating short-term bearishness in the index. The momentum towards previous record high levels can only be expected after a weekly closing above 26,000 levels on Friday.

On the options data front, the 26,000 calls hold the highest open interest, indicating a strong resistance for the NIFTY50 for the coming weekly expiry. On the other hand, 25,700 puts hold the highest open interest, protecting the downside.