Stock Market Opening: Sensex, Nifty Begin Thursday’s Trade Lower

Indian equity benchmarks opened mildly lower on Thursday as a US Federal Reserve rate hike and geopolitical concerns weighed on investor sentiment.

The Sensex opened at 74,182.62, down more than 150 points or 0.21 per cent, while the Nifty started at 23,195.25, declining 22.35 points or 0.10 per cent.

Nifty Media led early sectoral losses, falling nearly 1 per cent, followed by Nifty IT, which declined 0.56 per cent. Nifty Consumer Durables slipped 0.31 per cent.

Private banks, mid-small IT and telecom, financial services and pharma stocks traded lower.

PSU Bank gained 0.37 per cent, while Nifty Chemical rose 0.22 per cent. Nifty Oil & Gas advanced 0.17 per cent, and Nifty FMCG climbed 0.13 per cent.

Market experts said the Federal Reserve’s 25-basis-point rate hike was broadly in line with expectations.

Persistent inflation, a resilient US economy and hawkish comments from Fed officials continued to point to tight financial conditions.

US 10-year Treasury yields near 5 per cent could remain a headwind for equities, experts said. They added that strong corporate earnings and a relatively resilient US economy could offer some support to markets.

In the previous session, foreign institutional investors remained net sellers, offloading equities worth around ₹2,000 crore.

Domestic institutional investors, however, bought shares worth nearly ₹3,900 crore.

In the commodity market, Brent crude was trading 0.2 per cent lower at $105.62 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 0.3 per cent to around $102 a barrel.

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