Sensex Opening Bell: Market sluggish after unexpected rally; Sensex slips 200 points, Nifty below 25350
New Delhi| After hitting all-time highs in the previous session, Indian equity indices Sensex and Nifty fell on Friday, driven by falls in FMCG and energy stocks. At 9:24 am the BSE Sensex was down 176 points or 0.20% at 82,793, while the Nifty 50 fell 59 points or 0.23% to 25,329. Sensex stocks Asian Paints, M&M, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, ITC and HUL opened with losses, while Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tata Motors and Nestle saw gains.
On the sectoral front, Nifty FMCG fell by 0.43% and Nifty IT by 0.32%. Nifty Financial Services, Pharma, Healthcare and Oil & Gas also opened in the red. Meanwhile, Adani Group shares fell marginally in early trading, down by as much as 1%. This came after American short-seller Hindenburg Research claimed that Swiss authorities had frozen more than $310 million of the group’s funds. However, the Indian group has denied involvement in any such action.
In single shares shares, 3% increase in IRCTC. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) increased its stake in the railway firm from 7.278% to 9.298%. Shares of HG Infra Engineering also jumped 4.5%, the company has received an order worth Rs 716 crore from Central Railway.
India’s August retail inflation remained below the Central Bank’s target of 4% for the second consecutive month, data showed after markets closed on Thursday. Retail inflation rose to 3.65% in August, slightly higher than the 3.6% recorded in July. Meanwhile, food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall CPI basket, rose to 5.66% in August. Analysts believe rising food and vegetable prices have dampened expectations of a rate cut at the upcoming monetary policy meeting.