Sensex and Nifty Drop in Early Trade Amid Profit-Taking and Weak Asian Markets

Equity benchmarks fell in early trading on Friday, following a record rally the previous session. Profit-taking and weak trends from Asian markets contributed to the decline.

The BSE Sensex slipped 200.03 points to 82,762.68, despite starting on a positive note. The NSE Nifty fell by 67.5 points to 25,321.40.

Key laggards among the 30 Sensex stocks included Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Infosys, and Bajaj Finance. In contrast, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, and Power Grid saw gains.

Asian markets showed mixed performance: Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai were lower, while Hong Kong was up. U.S. markets had ended with gains on Thursday.

Thursday’s rally had driven the BSE Sensex to a historic intra-day high of 83,116.19, closing at 82,962.71, up 1,439.55 points or 1.77%. The NSE Nifty also reached a record closing high of 25,388.90, hitting an intra-day peak of 25,433.35.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 7,695 crore on Thursday. Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude increased by 0.40% to $72.26 per barrel.