India's key equity markets opened in the red on Friday as negative global cues subdued investors' sentiments. Market watchers have attributed it to weak global cues that continued to trigger profit booking.

Consequently, the S&P BSE Sensex traded at 52,337.13 points around 9.55 a.m. lower by 231.81 points, or 0.44 per cent, from its previous close. Similarly, the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 15,669.85, lower by 58.05 points, or 0.37 per cent, from its previous close.

"After showing sharp weakness on Thursday, Nifty has slipped into follow-through weakness at the opening on Friday taking cues from its Asian counterparts. Metal stocks are seeing some buying in the morning while Bank stocks are facing some selling pressure," said Deepak Jasani- Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

Sensex
A stock broker reacts to the falling shares in MumbaiCredit: Reuters

"Nifty needs to stay above 15635, the intra day low so far, for the Nifty to try to recover; else a sharper fall could ensue."

According to Gaurav Garg, Head of Research at CapitalVia Global Research: "As expected the markets opened negative fueled by profit booking yesterday which was intensified in the second half of the session as well as weakness in the global market with Dow Jones closing 0.75 per cent down."

"Today, we expect the market to trade with a negative bias with Nifty50 having a major support at 15600 and BankNifty at 34900. If both these levels are respected, we might see some recovery coming in in the second half of the session."

Thursday closure

Negative global cues, as well as profit booking, pulled the Indian equities market lower on Thursday. Weak global cues triggered profit booking. Besides, selling was broad-based as most of the sectoral indices on both the key indices closed in the red.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed at 52,568.94, lower by 485.82 points, or 0.92 per cent, from its previous close of 53,054.76. It had opened at 53,065.69 and touched an intra-day high of 53,103.03 and a low of 52,428.84 points.

sensex

Similarly, the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 15,727.90, lower by 151.75 points, or 0.96 per cent, from its previous close.

"Technically, Support for the Nifty comes in at 15,635. While 15,900 resistance is turning out to be a tough nut to crack," HDFC Securities' Deputy Head of Retail Research Devarsh Vakil said.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services's Head, Retail Research, Siddhartha Khemka said: "Domestically, Nifty ended with sharp losses as profit booking pulled the market down even as global cues remained negative. Also sentiments got impacted after rating agency Fitch lowered India's GDP outlook for FY22 to 10 per cent from 12.8 per cent earlier, expecting a sluggish recovery post the second wave of Covid-19."

(With inputs from IANS)

Also Read