Sensex Opens at Over 3-Week Low

India’s BSE Sensex fell about 0.4% to 81,899 on Friday, falling to its lowest since early February following a muted session, as selling pressure weighed across most sectors, with only technology posting modest gains. Investors remained cautious ahead of today’s release of Q4 GDP data, expected to ease from 8.2%, the strongest growth since Q1 2024. The index also followed flat trading in US stock futures, reflecting muted reactions to recent strong corporate earnings and cautious sentiment on broader market growth prospects. Further weighing on sentiment is the US January producer price inflation data due later today. Among the early laggards were Vishal Mega (-6.6%), L&T Finance (-3.4%), Bandhan Bank (-2.8%), and BSE (-1.3%). Early trading sees the index down 1.1% for the week and 0.5% for the month.

India's BSE Sensex swung between small gains and losses during Thursday's session, before closing virtually unchanged near a one-month low of 82,248.6. A sense of caution prevailed ahead of US–Iran nuclear talks, as well as key data releases, including US initial jobless claims and India’s GDP figures due on Friday. Weakness in heavyweight financials, coupled with selling pressure in consumer, power, and energy stocks, offset the ongoing recovery in the IT sector and gains in private banks and pharma. Among individual stocks, HDFC Bank declined 1.3%, while Bajaj Finserv (-0.9%), Axis Bank (-0.5%), and Bajaj Finance (-0.5%) also posted losses. Trent (-1.6%), Eternal (-1.3%), and Power Grid (-1%) were among the other top decliners. On the upside, Bharat Electronics outperformed with a 2.3% gain, Bharti Airtel advanced 1.1%, and State Bank of India added 0.8% after CLSA reiterated its “outperform” rating. TCS gained 0.7% as stronger-than-expected results from Nvidia eased AI concerns.

The SENSEX Index fell -27 points or 0.03 percent on Thursday to close at 82249 points. Leading the losses are HDFC Bank (-1.27%), Power Grid (-1.19%) and Asian Paints (-0.89%). Top gainers were Indusind Bank (3.00%), Tata Motors (2.93%) and Sun Pharmaceuticals (1.32%).