Opening Bell! Share market cracks on Friday at open, Sensex down over 400 pts, Nifty below 16400 – Metal stocks drag most

Amid weak global cues, the Indian market started Friday's session lower, as Sensex declined by over 400 points, while Nifty50 below 16400-mark. The plunge in the benchmarks is mostly due to weak metal, IT, pharma along with banking and financial stocks.

The BSE Sensex plummeted over 428 points or 0.77 per cent to 55201.3 while Nifty50 tumbled over 186 points or 1.12 per cent to 16,382.5 levels at the market open today.  

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In the broader markets category, the mid-cap index too followed the benchmarks suite and slipped by 222.2 points or 0.8 per cent to 27454.6 at open on Friday. Similarly, Nifty Bank leading the decline in Nifty50, fell over 400 points or 1.15 per cent to 35146.5 levels, led by HDFC Bank.  

Of 50 scrips on Nifty50, 9 advanced, 40 declined and one remained unchanged minutes after the market open today. Metal and IT stocks such as Tata Steel, Hindalco, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech slumped most at the market open today by 3.7, 2.6, 3, and 2.36 per cent respectively. Similarly, Hero MotoCorp also plunged by almost 3 per cent at the open on Friday. 

In an otherwise weak market, Asian Paint and Maruti Suzuki gained the most by over 1 per cent, followed by SBI Life, Bharti Airtel, HUL each surged between 0.3-1 per cent at the market open today.  

All sectors opened in the red today, with Nifty Metal and Nifty Bank slumped most by 2.54 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. While other sectors such as IT, PSU, and private bank sectors along with Media and Realty too dragged the market at open on Friday. 

Globally, the US markets on Thursday are on course for the worst week since early April as Dow Jones loses over 400 points in 2 days even as jobless claims hit new lows. Asian markets on Friday opened mute as there was a near bloodbath yesterday with most indices losing from 1.5-2.5 per cent.

Another important trigger for domestic markets - Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) on Wednesday sold shares worth Rs 595.32 crore in cash and Rs 729.49 crore in index futures.

The Nifty on Wednesday closed with losses as after 5 days of consecutive rise, the Index saw selling pressure in banks and metals while consumption stocks saw buying interest.