Stock Market: Sensex Sheds 461 Points, Nifty Trades Below 18,200 On Weak Global Trends

Stock update: Dr Reddy, Bajaj Finance, Reliance, Tech Mahindra, ITC, Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Sun Pharma, and others were the major losers on the S&P BSE

Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Monday opened lower in early trade amid weak trend in global markets.

At 10.20 am, the BSE Sensex declined 461 points to 61,201, while the broader NSE Nifty dived 141 points to 18,166.

On 30-share Sensex platform, Dr Reddy, Bajaj Finance, Reliance, Tech Mahindra, ITC, Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Sun Pharma, and others were the major losers. On the flip side, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, and Tata Steel were the winners.

In the broader markets, Nifty SmallCap 100 index outperformed Nifty MidCap 100 index.

Sectorwise, Nifty Media and Nifty Metal indices started trade with marginal gains. Nifty Auto, Nifty Pharma, Nifty IT, and Nifty FMCG indices, however, dropped up to 0.9 per cent.

Volatility gauge, India VIX, on the other hand, climbed over 4 per cent.

The overall sentiment of the 30-share BSE Sensex was negative as only five scrips were trading in the green while rest 25 were in the negative zone.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower. Wall Street had ended higher on Friday.

"There is a strong tailwind and a strong headwind which can sway the market now. The tailwind is the sharp decline in Brent crude to $86.75, which is a big macro positive for India. But this tailwind is unlikely to take the market higher since the headwind in the form of steadily declining momentum in the recent market uptrend is very strong," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The optimism driven by the recent decline is US inflation has run its course and the market is likely to wait for further data on the direction of US inflation and interest rates, he added.

In the previous session on Friday, the BSE benchmark declined 87 points (0.14 per cent) to settle at 61,663. The Nifty dipped 36 points (0.20 per cent) to end at 18,307.

International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.22 per cent lower at $ 86.55 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 751.20 crore on Friday, as per exchange data.

Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated 12 paise to 81.86 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, tracking the strength of the American currency in the overseas market and a muted trend in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 81.84 against the dollar, then lost ground to quote at 81.86, registering a loss of 12 paise over its previous close. On Friday, the rupee depreciated by 10 paise to close at 81.74 against the US currency.