Opening Bells: Sensex, Nifty open lower on weak domestic, global cues

Domestic equity benchmarks BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty started on a choppy note Tuesday tracking downbeat global market sentiment and foreign fund outflows. The BSE gauge Sensex fell 61.88 points to trade at 37,028 in early deals, while the NSE Nifty declined 18.45 points to 11,129.75.

On Monday, Indian bourses registered losses for the ninth consecutive session.

In the last nine sessions, the Sensex has lost 1,940.73 points and the Nifty has given away nearly 600 points.

Top gainers in early session were Vedanta, Sun Pharma, RIL, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid rising up to 2.85 per cent.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, ONGC, Infosys, HCL Tech, HDFC, Coal India, Yes Bank, TCS, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Axis Bank, were among the top losers, shedding up to 1.74 per cent.

Indian bourses are facing headwinds both on domestic and global front as weak macroeconomic scenario, concerns over health of NBFC sector, US-China trade tensions and uncertainty over Lok Sabha poll outcome have been keeping investors jittery for past many sessions, according to market experts.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee was trading five paise higher at 70.46 against the US dollar in opening deals Tuesday.

In Asia, all leading bourses witnessed mild to heavy sell-offs on Tuesday after US-China trade war further intensified.

In a retaliatory move, China on Monday said it would raise tariffs on US goods worth nearly USD 60 billion.

Brent Futures, global crude oil benchmark, traded higher at USD 70.30 per barrel, up 0.10 per cent, on concerns about supply disruptions in view of geo-political tensions in the crucial oil producing region of the Middle East.

In recent months, the country’s financial system has been grappling with multiple woes in the wake of the turmoil at diversified IL&FS group as well as default by some other large entities.

Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management, said, “apart from global concerns, Indian markets are also worried about the liquidity crunch on the ground affecting both, investments and consumption in the country.”

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold equities worth Rs 1,056.01 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares to the tune of Rs 1,057.91 crore, as per provisional data.