Sensex, Nifty slip after early gains amid weak Asian cues and FII outflows

Sensex and Nifty opened higher on Thursday but reversed gains to trade lower amid weak Asian markets and continued FII selling. Domestic institutional investors supported equities while Brent crude inched higher and Wall Street remained buoyed by Fed rate cuts.

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty began trading on a positive note on Thursday but soon pared all early gains to trade in the negative territory amid weak trends in Asian markets and persistent foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened higher and climbed 149.3 points, or 0.17 per cent to 84,540.57. The 50-share NSE Nifty also advanced 45.05 points to 25,803.05.

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However, both key indices reversed their gains as selling pressure intensified, with the Sensex declining 222.39 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 84,168.88 and the Nifty slipping 50.90 points to 25,707.10.

Among the Sensex constituents, Titan, PowerGrid, HCL Technologies, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Trent, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv and ITC were the laggards.

On the other hand, Eternal, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Adani Ports, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys and UltraTech Cement were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark, Shanghai’s SSE Composite, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s KOSPI were trading lower.

Wall Street settled higher in overnight deals on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.5-3.75 per cent in its December meeting.

However, policymakers left their projections for the federal funds rate unchanged from September, signalling only one 25 basis points cut in 2026.

Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) remained the net sellers of equities worth Rs 1,651.06 crore on Wednesday while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 3,752.31 crore, according to the exchange data.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.03 per cent to USD 62.23 per barrel.

On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 275.01 points to settle at 84,391.27, while the broader NSE Nifty fell by 81.65 points to close at a month’s low of 25,758.