NSE & BSE fall in early trade amid weak global market trends

Mumbai: Benchmark indices declined in early trade on Friday dragged down by IT counters amid an overall weak global market trend. The BSE Sensex declined by 397.67 points to end at 60,921.84 points. The NSE Nifty fell by 108.4 points to settle at 17,927.45 points.

The BSE benchmark had eked out marginal gains of 44.42 points or 0.07 per cent to settle at 61,319.51 points on Thursday. The Nifty advanced by 20 points or 0.11 percent to end at 18,035.85 points. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) were net buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 1,570.62 crore on February 16, according to exchange data.

Position of stocks listed in BSE

Nestle, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC and HDFC Bank were among the laggards in the Sensex pack.

UltraTech Cement, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Asian Paints and Reliance were among the gainers.

Performance of markets worldwide

In Asian markets, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China were trading lower.

The US markets had ended sharply lower on February 16.

International oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.78 percent to USD 84.48 per barrel.

"There is a clear pattern to the trends from the mother market, US. Whenever positive news like declining inflation comes, equity markets rise on hopes of a Fed pause and a possible rate cut by end 2023," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"Conversely, whenever data indicates a robust US economy, tight labour market and very slow disinflation, equity markets fall expecting the Fed to remain hawkish. This see-saw game is likely to continue till clarity emerges on where the economy is headed," he added .



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