Markets open lower: NIFTY50 down 40 points, while SENSEX trades below 80,500

Indian markets are set for a negative start on Friday despite positive global cues. The NIFTY50 opened 75 points lower at 24,759, and the SENSEX at 80684, down 299 points.

On the global front, the US markets ended in the green on Thursday, as continued optimism about artificial intelligence (AI) kept sentiment upbeat. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Friday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight.

Indian equity benchmarks rebounded sharply on Wednesday after an eight-day slump, ending with gains of around 1%, helped by buying in banking and telecom stocks after the RBI left key interest rates unchanged and revised its growth estimates for the current fiscal year upward to 6.8%.

Top gainers and losers at opening

Tata Steel (3%), Axis Bank (1.8%), Tata Motors (1%), Cipla (0.9%), and Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.7%) were the top five gainers at the opening. Meanwhile, Max Healthcare (-1.3%), Bajaj Finance (-1.1%), Eicher Motors (-1%), and Coal India (-1%) were the top losers on NIFTY50 at 9:20 am.

Auto stocks like Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto are in focus in early trade on reporting monthly auto sales data.

Among the stock specific developments, shares of JSW Steel jumped 1.5% in early morning trade on Friday after credit rating agency, Moody's changed the outlook on JSW Steel Limited (JSW Steel) and Periama Holdings LLC 's (Periama Holdings) ratings to positive from stable.