Opening Bell: Nifty below 16,200, Sensex drops around 300 points; IT stocks worst hit, banking sees some buying interest

Taking cues from Asian market and trends on the SGX Nifty, the Indian market opened lower on Monday. Benchmarks declined by around half per cent each amid weak global cues and profit taking after a three-day rally. The broader Nifty 50 slipped below 16, 200 to 16,136, while the Sensex declined by around 300 points to start at 54,248.60 in the opening trade.  

In the broader market, Nifty Midcap and Smallcap dropped around 0.2% each as India VIX opened near 19-mark 

Among sectoral indices, except for banking indices, which witnessed some buying interest in the opening trade, all other Nifty indices were sitting in the red. Nifty IT was the top loser, dragged by less than expected result of the IT giant TCS on Friday.  

There are many significant data points which will influence equity markets in the short run, says V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.  

The US jobs data showed 372000 job creation in June, indicating a strong economy and an increasing possibility of the Fed successfully engineering a soft landing of the US economy, said Vijaykumar. 

"The sharp decline in prices of commodities, particularly of crude, metals, wheat and edible oil augurs well for inflation management in India. This means, RBI can afford to go a bit slow on hiking interest rates in India. This positive trend is likely to keep the domestic equity market resilient. The selling exhaustion from FIIs last week is another positive for markets for the short-term," the expert said. 
 
He was of the view that the market texture reflects a change in investment strategy from sell on rallies in June to buy on dips in July. "Segments like capital goods, autos and high-quality financials indicate strength," he added. 

We had gone into last Monday, with 16200 for the week as the base case scenario followed by a turn lower, and 17000 for the medium term as the optimistic scenario, said Anand James - Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services

"With Friday's opening burst meeting rejection trades at the 60d SMA of 16280,the strength of uptrend would be put to test today, and favoured view expects a turn lower or a consolidation. A push above 16235early in the day, would encourage up moves to aim for 16340during the day, but sustainability is doubted. Inability to float above 16195 will expose 16150, Friday’s strong support, as well as 16115, the downside marker for the present up move, with15940 seen as catchment area, in the event of major downsides," the expert added.

Ahead of the market opening, the Sensex declined by nearly 400 points in the pre-open as 10 stocks advanced and 20 declined on the 30-share barometer index.  

Earlier, majority of the Asian indices, including SGX Nifty, were trading deep in the red in the morning.  

SGX Nifty, which hints at early trends of the market, was trading lower by more than 120 points on the Singaporean exchange minutes before market opening.  

Meanwhile, Hang Seng Index dropped more than two per cent, Chinese Shanghai Composite over one per cent in the early trade. However, Japanese Nikkie 225 surged higher by 1.6% around the same time.  

Earlier, the US market had closed flat with marginal cuts and gains on Friday. The US equity benchmark Dow Jones ended lower by 0.15%, Nasdaq rose 0.12% and S&P 500 declined 0.08% on Friday.