SENSEX slips over 250 pts, NIFTY50 trades above 23,700; Adani Enterprises shares rally 3%

Trading volumes are expected to remain thin for the next few sessions owing to the holiday season as the year 2024 draws to a close.

At 9:45 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX was trading at 78,440.55, down 258.52 points, or 0.33%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index was quoting 87.80 points, or 0.37%, lower at 23,725.60 levels.

Out of 50 components in the NIFTY50 index, 33 were trading in the red, and the rest 17 in the green.

The top five gainers of the index were Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Apollo Hospitals, Bharti Airtel, and NTPC.

On the other hand, Trent, BPCL, M&M, ONGC, and Titan Company were the top losers.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,323.29 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Buzzing Stocks

Adani Enterprises is one of India's largest listed incubators, which has conceived, grown, matured, and demerged many successful businesses, including ports company Adani Ports & SEZ, city gas distributor Adani Total Gas, power transmission company Adani Energy Solutions, renewable energy firm Adani Green Energy, Adani Power, and commodities firm Adani Wilmar.

Broader Market

The BSE MidCap index was trading at 46,164.20, down 161 points, or 0.35%, while the BSE SmallCap index was trading at 54,824.35, down 224 points, or 0.41%.

Sector update

Most sectoral indices were trading in the red. The biggest losers were the IT stocks. The BSE Information Technology index was trading at 43,169.05, down 440.59 points, or 1.01%.

The stock reaction was exactly opposite to what Street was expecting.

Shares of the IT sector were expected to gain as US President-elect Trump told the media there that he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers.

“I’ve always liked the visas; I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.

It must be noted that over 70% of H-1B visa holders are Indian.

Global Markets

Asian shares edged lower on Monday as high Treasury yields challenged lofty Wall Street equity valuations while underpinning the US dollar near multi-month peaks.

Volumes were light with the New Year holiday looming. China has the PMI factory surveys out on Tuesday, while the US ISM survey for December is due on Friday.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.2% but is still 16% higher for the year. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.2% but is sitting on gains of 20% for 2024.