Sensex, Nifty open lower amid weak global cues

Mumbai, Sep 24 (IANS) The Indian benchmark indices opened marginally lower on Wednesday, on the back of weak global cues, with broad-based selling across all sectors, except PSU bank.

As of 9.21 am, the Sensex was down 289 points, or 0.35 per cent at 81,813 and the Nifty was down 87 points, or 0.35 per cent at 25,082.

Investor sentiments were weighed down by comments from US Fed Chair Jerome Powell about stagflation risks and elevated asset prices. Additionally, the impact of US visa curbs, ongoing foreign outflows, and persistent valuation concerns in domestic markets acted as headwinds for the stock exchanges.

The broad cap indices Nifty Midcap 100 dipped 0.45 per cent, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 lost 0.20 per cent.

Trent, SBI, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, and ONGC are among the major gainers on the Nifty pack, while losers include Hero MotoCorp, Titan Company, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty Auto, the top loser, lost 0.71 per cent. Nifty IT (down 0.66 per cent) and Nifty Consumer durables (down 0.70 per cent) also weighed down on the indices. All other sectoral indices were trading in the red except PSU Bank which gained 0.37 per cent.

Analysts said that the global market is fraught with concern due to the elevated asset prices. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hinted that the prices of assets, including stocks, gold, silver, and bitcoin, are currently high. He also reiterated the risks to inflation and employment, indicating that the Federal Reserve's policy will be difficult to navigate in the future.

In India, even though the Nifty is around 4 per cent down from the September 2024 peak, valuations continue to be higher than the long-term averages. But these valuations will become justifiable when the earnings growth picks up, hopefully in FY27, they said.

The US markets ended in the red zone overnight, as Nasdaq dipped 0.95 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.55 per cent, and the Dow lost 0.19 per cent in the last trading session.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the green during the morning session. While China's Shanghai index edged up 0.45 per cent, and Shenzhen advanced 0.92 per cent, Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.43 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.74 per cent. South Korea's Kospi lost 1.21 per cent.

On Tuesday, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 3,551 crore, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) were net buyers of equities worth Rs 2,671 crore.

--IANS

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