Mumbai’s bustling stock market kicked off Friday in the red, dragged down by feeble global signals. At 9:19 AM, the Sensex tumbled 444 points or 0.54% to 82,100, while the Nifty shed 157 points or 0.62% to hover at 25,261.
Metal and commodities stocks spearheaded the early decline, positioning Nifty Metal and Nifty Commodities as the biggest losers among sectoral indices. IT, media, energy, PSE, realty, PSU banks, and defense indices also flashed red. In a rare bright spot, healthcare, pharma, and FMCG sectors clung to green territory.
Within the Sensex pack, Maruti Suzuki, Indigo, Titan, ITC, and Sun Pharma emerged as top gainers, offering some resistance amid the sell-off. However, heavyweights like Tata Steel, Infosys, HCL Tech, TCS, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finserv, Eternal, BEL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, M&M, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, and Axis Bank weighed down the index as prominent losers.
The bearish sentiment spilled over to midcap and smallcap segments. Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 579.75 points or 0.99% to 57,961.25, and Nifty Smallcap 100 fell 182.70 points or 1.09% to 16,642.30.
Overseas markets mirrored the gloom, with Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Bangkok trading lower. Seoul and Jakarta bucked the trend with gains. US markets closed mixed on Thursday, Dow up 0.11% but Nasdaq down 0.72%.
Commodity prices weakened further. Gold dipped 1.99% to $5,250 per ounce, silver plunged 3.50% to $110 per ounce. Crude oil softened too, with WTI at $64.31 per barrel (down 1.71%) and Brent at $68.51 (down 1.60%).
Investors remain cautious as global uncertainties loom large, with eyes now on upcoming economic data and policy cues to gauge the depth of this downturn.