The BSE Sensex fell over 150 points, or 0.23%, to 78,599.28, while the Nifty50 slipped 54.80 points, or 0.23%, to 23,940.55 as of 9:56 am.
Meanwhile, in early trade, the Sensex touched a low of 78,455, while the Nifty hit 23,908.
Both the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex fell about 1.25% on Monday, marking their biggest single-day losses since October 3, as volatility surged to a three-month high amid uncertainty surrounding the closely contested U.S. election.
Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are nearly tied in opinion polls ahead of Tuesday’s voting, with the possibility of delayed results adding to market uncertainty.
Analysts expect volatility to increase further as investors await the election outcome to make sector-specific investments.Among the Sensex constituents, HDFC Bank, Adani Ports, ITC, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Industries opened with losses, while JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, and HCL Tech posted early gains.Among individual stocks, IRCTC shares fell 3% in early trade after the company reported a modest 4% year-on-year (YoY) rise in profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 308 crore, while revenue from operations increased by 7%.
Raymond shares rose 4.5% after the company reported a substantial rise in consolidated Q2 net profit, doubling YoY to Rs 59 crore from Rs 27.8 crore, driven by robust growth in its real estate and engineering businesses.
Sectorally, Nifty Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, Media, Realty, Consumer Durables, and Oil & Gas opened in the red, while Nifty Auto, IT, Metal, and Pharma opened in the green.
Experts View
“With all attention focused on the outcome of the US presidential election, perhaps the more important domestic economic issue is not getting the importance it deserves. It is important to understand that India’s underperformance is striking: while S&P 500 is up 20.45% YTD Nifty is up by only 10.36% YTD. Clearly, domestic issues are weighing on markets,” said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
“With two thirds of Nifty 50 companies missing their earnings estimates in Q2, Nifty 50 earnings for FY25 has been drastically revised down to less than 10% from the consensus 15% earlier. With this kind of earnings downgrade it would be difficult to sustain the current valuation. This is the rationale of the relentless FII selling which might continue for some more time,” Vijayakumar added.
Hardik Matalia, Derivative Analyst at Choice Broking, said, “After a flat opening, Nifty can find support at 23,900 followed by 23,800 and 23,600. On the higher side, 24,050 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,150 and 24,250.”
Global Markets
Stock markets moved sideways and an uneasy calm settled over currencies and bonds as investors waited for the United States to choose a new leader with polls showing the contest on a knife edge.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat. Tokyo’s Nikkei returned from a holiday and rose 1.3% in morning trade. S&P 500 futures ticked 0.1% higher.
FII/DII Tracker
The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 4,330 crore on November 4, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 2,936 crore on the same day.
Crude Oil
Oil prices traded in a narrow range on Tuesday ahead of what is expected to be an exceptionally close U.S. presidential election, after rising more than 2% in the previous session as OPEC+ delayed plans to hike production in December.
Brent crude futures ticked up 14 cents, or 0.19%, to $75.22 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $71.6 a barrel, up 13 cents, or 0.18%.
Rupee vs Dollar
The Indian rupee fell 2 paise to 84.13 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, rose 0.05% to 103.93 level.
(With inputs from agencies)
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