Sensex, Nifty open slightly lower, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance top losers

Indian equity indices opened lower on Friday following weak cues from the US markets.

At 9.24 a.m., Sensex was down 142 points or 0.17 per cent at 81, 469 and Nifty was down 36 points or 0.12 per cent at 24,960.

Selling was seen in the banking stocks. Nifty Bank was down 204 points or 0.40 per cent at 51,326.

In the Sensex pack, HCL Tech, Wipro, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Titan, Infosys, JSW Steel, TCS and IndusInd Bank were top gainers.

Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki, HUL, Nestle and SBI were top losers.

Midcap and smallcap index were trading in the green. Nifty midcap 100 index was up 79 points or 0.13 per cent at 58,995 and Nifty smallcap was up 39 points or 0.18 per cent at 18,939.

Among the sectoral indices, IT, PSU Bank, pharma, metal, media and commodities were major gainers. Auto, fin service, FMCG, realty and energy were major losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the green. Tokyo, Seoul, Hongkong, Bangkok and Jakarta were major gainers. The US market closed in red on Thursday.

According to the market experts, "Market is likely to remain volatile in the near-term alternating between FII selling and DII buying. Attractive valuations in other markets, particularly in Chinese stocks, will facilitate further selling by FIIs in India since Indian valuations are elevated. Concerns of earnings downgrades in H2 FY 25 render Indian valuations difficult to sustain."

"A healthy trend in the market is the leading private sector banks getting accumulated and showing resilience even in a weak market. This is the most attractively valued segment in this market where there is no valuation comfort," they added.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling on October 10 as they sold equities worth Rs 4,926 crore, on the other hand, domestic institutional investors also extended their buying as they bought equities worth Rs 3,878 crore on the same day.