Market Opens At A Sluggish Pace, Sensex Down By 280 Points, Nifty Opens Above 17,200

The stock market edged lower dragged by losses in index heavyweights such as Infosys, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, amid weak cues from other Asian markets

The BSE at Dalal Street in Mumbai

New Delhi: Rising cases of the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, in the country and sluggish Asian markets are keeping indices in the red territory during early trade on Monday. The key equity benchmarks — Sensex and Nifty — saw a mixed opening on the first trading day of the week.

After starting around 100 points lower, the BSE Sensex hit a low of 57,343 (down nearly 300 points) in early deals. It, however, recouped some of the losses to trade at 57,455 levels, down 280 points during early trade in 10 am.

The Indian stock market edged lower dragged by losses in index heavyweights such as Infosys, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, and Mahindra & Mahindra amid weak cues from other Asian markets. Asian share markets lagged a bounce in US and European futures, while bonds surrendered some of their recent gains and oil rallied as Saudi Arabia lifted its crude prices.

November’s mixed US jobs report did little to shake market expectations of a more aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve, leaving a week to wait for a consumer price report that could make the case for an early tapering.

The BSE’s main index, Sensex, was trading 153.71 points, or 0.27 per cent, lower at 57,542 as the market opened. While as far as the NSE Nifty is concerned, it managed to open above 17,200. While the Sensex was trading more than 550 points higher in the pre-opening, the Nifty was down nearly 150 points. 

How did the market fare in the pre-opening
The market trading pattern in the pre-opening on Monday changed considerably after the market opened. In the pre-opening, while the Sensex was trading at 581.25 points, or 1.01 per cent, higher at 58,277, Nifty was trading 141 points, or 0.81 per cent, lower at 17,072. This trend indicated that the market may also see a mixed start.

How was the market in early trade
In the first 15 minutes of the market, the Sensex was trading 71.64 points, or 0.12 per cent, lower at 57,624, and the NSE Nifty was trading 20.60 points, or 0.12 per cent, lower at 17176.10. Looking at Nifty indices, the decline can be seen in bank Nifty and is trading 161.50 points, or 0.45 per cent, lower at 36,035. The Nifty 50, however, is showing a slight rise and is trading above 8,400. 

View on Asian markets and US markets
If we study Monday’s Asian market, they witnessed a boom. However, SGX Nifty continued to fluctuate. Asian markets saw the Hangseng fall 1.16 per cent and the Shanghai Index was trading 0.46 per cent lower. Also, last Friday, all three indices of the US market closed at the red mark. The Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 registered a weak trend, although the Nasdaq futures are trading in the green.