Equity benchmark indices are trading lower as the heavyweight stocks get weighed down by uncertainties arising from geopolitical tensions, a looming Federal Reserve decision and the Union budget Announcement on February 01.
On the sectoral front, Nifty Auto and Metals maintain the upside ahead of F&O expiry while other sectoral indices logged selling pressure from investors including banking, IT, PSU Banks, Pharma index were down between 0.5-1.1%.
At around 9:45 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 290.81 points to 60,687.94 in opening deals while the Nifty 50 slumped 92.15 points to 18,026.15. Mid- and small-cap shares were in the negative zone as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.72 per cent and small-cap shares were trading 0.56 per cent lower.
Tata Steel, Hindalco, Maruti Suzuki, BPCL, HUL were also among the gainers. Whereas, Adani Ports, Ultratech Cement, APL Apollo, SBI, Adani Enterprises were the worst hit among the 40 laggards in the Nifty50 pack.
Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla, Amara Raja Batteries, Arvind, Ceat, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Dixon Technologies, DLF, Embassy Office Parks REIT, Equitas Holdings, Go Fashion, Indraprastha Gas, Indian Bank, Jyothy Labs, Olectra Greentech, Patanjali Foods, Tata Elxsi, TeamLease Services, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, and VIP Industries will declare their Q3FY22 numbers today.
Among global markets, Asian shares opened mixed with the Japanese 'Nikkei' trading flat after the sharp rally of last week while other markets consolidated given the Chinese Lunar holidays with most Asian markets closed for trading.
Overnight, on Wall Street, US markets see volatile day as Dow Jones climbs from down 300 to close up 104 points while Nasdaq sees profit booking to close down 30.
