Stock Market Today: The Sensex and Nifty 50 opened lower on Friday, shaken by foreign institutional investor sell-offs, disappointing Q2 FY25 earnings projections, and escalating geopolitical tensions that undermined investor confidence. While banking and telecom stocks faced declines, a strong performance from the oil & gas and metals sectors helped prevent a sharper decline for the Nifty.
At 10 am, the Sensex declined by 45.81 points, or 0.06 per cent, closing at 81,565.60, while the Nifty fell by 1 point, remaining virtually unchanged at 24,997.50. Out of the total shares traded, 1,841 advanced, 1,160 declined, and 115 remained unchanged.
On the 30-share BSE Sensex platform, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra are trading in positive territory. In contrast, TCS, Asian Paints, ICICI, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid are among the losers.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Market is likely to remain volatile in the near-term alternating between FII selling and DII buying. Attractive valuations in other markets, particularly in Chinese stocks, will facilitate further selling by FIIs in India since Indian valuations are elevated. Concerns of earnings downgrades in H2 FY 25 render Indian valuations difficult to sustain.
“However, the sustained flows into the domestic mutual funds, where monthly SIPs have set a new record of Rs 24500 in September, will ensure that all FII selling will be easily absorbed by DII buying. This has been the trend in October so far,” he added.
Wall Street's major indexes ended lower on Thursday as investors evaluated higher-than-expected inflation and unemployment claims data for clues about the US economy and the potential trajectory of interest rates. In contrast, Asian shares rose on Friday, bypassing the losses experienced on Wall Street.
In the previous trading session on Friday, the Nifty index remained close to the crucial 25,000 mark throughout the day. Ultimately, the Sensex closed with a gain of 144.31 points, or 0.18 per cent, finishing at 81,611.41. In parallel, the Nifty increased by 16.50 points, or 0.07 per cent, ending the session at 24,998.50.