Opening Bell: Market halts 4-day winning spree; Sensex dips 230 pts, Nifty below 12,900; Power Grid top loser

Indian market opened on a lower note, giving away past four-days winning streak. The market tracked Asian indices which eased from record highs as Covid-19 restriction in the United States took a toll on Wall Street's performance overnight.

At around 09.23 am, Sensex was trading at 43,978.37 down 201.68 points or 0.46%. Nifty 50 was performing at 12,887.40 below 50.85 points or 0.39%.

Sensex opened at 43,902.24 below 277.81 points or 0.63% and Nifty 50 plunged by 98.75 points or 0.76% at 12,839.50.

Banking, auto, finance, capital goods, power and realty stocks were major laggards during the opening session.

BSE Auto, BSE Finance, BSE Bankex, BSE Power, BSE Capital Goods have recorded near 1% drop each.

Top losers on Sensex were - Power Grid (-3%), followed by ICICI Bank and Axis Bank plunging by 2% each. HDFC, SBI, L&T, HDFC Bank and Ultratech Cement dives 1% each. Also, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Axian Paint and ITC dragged the performance.

Top gainers on Sensex were - Tata Steel and Bajaj Finserv surging by 2% each, followed by Bajaj Finance, TCS and RIL which advanced by 1% each.

Stocks that will remain in focus today are - Wipro, Hero MotoCorp, aviation stocks, Pfizer, TCS and Tata Steel.

Even further promising Covid-19 vaccine development failed to cheer investors globally. Pfizer has announced about similar effectiveness in preventing Coronavirus like Moderna. Both the drugmakers are in their phase 3 study of clinical trials for Covid-19 vaccine.

Japan's Nikkei 225 dived by near 1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumped on similar lines. Taiwan TSEC 50 Index and South Korea's KOSPI dipped by 0.3% and 0.5% respectively. Australia ASX All Ordinaries was trading broadly flat. However, China's Shanghai SE Composite Index was trading in the green, but yet on a cautious note.