Sensex falls 485 points, Nifty falls to 23,167 in early trade

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The Indian stock market opened lower on Friday amid weak global cues as selling was seen in the IT and private bank sectors.


At around 9.30 am, Sensex was trading at 76,717.03 after dropping 325.79 points or 0.42 per cent, while Nifty was trading at 23,225 after declining 86.80 points or 0.37 per cent.


On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,118 stocks were trading in green, while 1,039 stocks were in red.


According to experts, there are two positives for the market: One, the declining trend in the dollar index and the US bond yields continue and second, the Q3 results from the big boys Reliance Industries Limited and Infosys are better-than-expected.


"These two stocks have the potential to lead a minor recovery in the market," they added.


Nifty Bank was down 470.55 points or 0.95 per cent at 48,808.15. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 54,275.15 after dropping 208.65 points or 0.38 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 17,625.10 after dropping 18.20 points or 0.10 per cent.


Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, Infosys, Axis Bank, TCS, HCL Tech, M&M, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and IndusInd Bank were the top losers. Whereas, Reliance, Zomato, L&T, Sun Pharma, Adani Ports, ITC and Tata Motors were the top gainers.


Dow Jones declined 0.16 per cent to close at 43,153.13. The S&P 500 dropped 0.21 per cent to 5,937.34 and the Nasdaq declined 0.89 per cent to close at 19,338.29 in the last trading session.


In the Asian markets, Seoul, Bangkok and Japan were trading in red. Whereas China, Jakarta and Hong Kong were trading in green.


"The correction in the market has made largecap valuations reasonable. Nifty is now trading at around 19 times estimated FY 26 earnings. Therefore, long-term investors, who can ignore the volatility caused by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) selling, can use the dips to buy high quality largecaps. The bounce back of this segment is only a question of time," said market watchers.


In the meantime, FIIs sold equities worth Rs 4,341.95 crore on January 16, on the other hand domestic institutional bought equities worth Rs 2,928.72 crore on the same day.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by News Agency staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)