Sensex, Nifty trade lower in early deals; IT shares buck trend

Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty traded lower on Friday amid mixed global cues, despite gains in IT stocks. Strong corporate earnings, rupee strength and falling US bond yields supported market sentiment, while elevated crude prices and FII selling remained concerns

New Delhi: Domestic equity benchmark indices traded lower on Friday, tracking mixed global cues, while information technology (IT) shares supported the market with gains. In early deals, Sensex was trading 0.29 per cent or 221.89 points lower at 74,093, hitting an intraday low.

Similarly, Nifty recorded an intraday low of 22,942, down 0.24 per cent or 55.19 points. Earlier in the day Sensex opened 0.03 per cent or 25.47 points higher at 74,341.08 against its previous close of 74,315.61. While the 50-scrip basket began the trading session at 23,065.10, up 0.29 per cent or 67.75 points from its previous close of 22,997.35. In morning trade, Nifty IT, Nifty Media, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal surged up to 1.59 per cent.

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In contrast, Nifty Oil & Gas, Nifty MidSmall IT & Telecom and Nifty FMCG declined up to 0.86 per cent. Meanwhile, realty and auto sectoral indices were also trading lower, while pharma, cement, healthcare and private bank saw marginal declines.

According to market experts, India has significantly outperformed other markets this week with 668-point gains in Nifty 50 in the last three days. The outperformance is driven by a weakening AI trade, expectations of major changes in LTCG taxation in the coming Budget, and positive fallout from Q2 results that have been better than expected so far. They further noted that good results from IT majors and positive management commentary have led to a smart 9 per cent revival in the IT index, contributing to the resilience of the Nifty.

“Q2 results of telecom, banking, automobiles and metals like copper, aluminium and zinc are expected to be impressive and provide fundamental support to the market,” they added. “Another positive development is the sharp decline in the US 10-year bond yield to 5.07 per cent. This, along with strength in the rupee, can restrain FII selling to some extent,” according to the experts.

However, FIIs are likely to continue selling so long as the 10-year yield remains above 5 per cent and Brent trades above $100. While maintaining a 23,200-23,600 view, analysts expect mean reversion moves while below 23,070, given the sharp rise in the previous session. Dips are expected to find buying interest as long as they do not stretch beyond 22,780.

On global cues, Asian equities traded higher in early hours, mirroring US markets. The S&P 500 closed 0.33 per cent higher after recovering from early losses, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended flat, up 0.08 per cent.