Indian equity indices opened Tuesday’s trading session on a subdued note. The NSE Nifty 50 opened 12.40 points, or 0.05%, higher at 22,947, while the BSE Sensex inched up 54 points, or 0.07%, to open at 75,942.94.
The GIFT Nifty implied that the markets would open on a flat note. It was down 14 points, or 0.06%, at 22,996. During the pre-open session, the Nifty 50 was up 4 points, or 0.02%, at 22,963.65, while the Sensex was up 77 points, or 0.10%, at 76,073.71.
Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Apollo Hospitals, Sun Pharma, and HCL Technologies were the top gainers in the Nifty 50. On the flip side, Grasim Industries, UltraTech Cements, HDFC Life Insurance, BPCL, and Shriram Finance were the major losers in the Nifty 50.
On February 18, the market breadth remained in favour of the bears as out of 2,306 stocks traded, 1,294 stocks were trading in the red while 932 advanced, as per the data on NSE.
Bank Nifty opened 19 points or 0.04% lower at 49,239.50. The Nifty Midcap 100 rose 101 points, or 0.20%, to open at 49,951.75.
Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty IT was the only index to trade in the green, up by 0.65% at 41,339.05.
“The weakness in the market persists despite the mild recovery witnessed yesterday. The market construct doesn’t favour a rally in the market. FIIs are likely to continue to sell. News flows are not positive. The US market continues to be strong and may attract more capital flows from other markets to the US,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
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“The focus is on Wednesday’s FOMC minutes, expected to reveal a hawkish Federal Reserve, lowering hopes for rate cuts in 2025. Positive catalysts include Russia-Ukraine peace prospects, falling oil prices, a weaker US Dollar, and RBI’s rate cuts,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior Vice President of Research at Mehta Equities.
Apart from that, the gold rate today has jumped 0.35% compared to a day back.
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