Markets give up early gains; trade lower on foreign fund exodus

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded in early trade on Friday after two days of decline but soon succumbed to selling pressure as heavy foreign fund outflows made investors jittery.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex climbed 270.76 points to 77,890.97 in early trade. The NSE Nifty also went up by 69.5 points to 23,596.

However, soon both the benchmark indices slipped in the negative territory. The BSE benchmark quoted 306.07 points lower at 77,313.56, while the Nifty traded with a cut of 112.10 points at 23,412.45.

From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Tata Consultancy Services jumped 4% after the IT services company reported an 11.95% jump in December quarter net profit to ₹12,380 crore.

Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Tech, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank and Nestle were the other big gainers.

IndusInd Bank, Zomato, NTPC, State Bank of India, Adani Ports and Power Grid were among the laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹7,170.87 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

"There appears to be no respite to the sustained FII selling which touched ₹7,170 crore yesterday. This will continue to put pressure on the market. Since the results season has started, the market will witness lots of stock-specific action in response to the results. Results of TCS indicate that the IT sector will continue to remain resilient," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said.

In Asian markets, Seoul traded in the positive territory while Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong quoted lower. US markets were closed on Thursday.

"Uncertainty around the US Federal Reserve rate plans and President-elect Trump's policies continue to fuel market pessimism," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.30% to $77.15 a barrel.

Sliding for the second straight day on Thursday, the 30-share BSE benchmark dropped 528.28 points or 0.68% to sink below the 78,000 level at 77,620.21. The Nifty slumped 162.45 points or 0.69% to 23,526.50.