First Trade: Sensex opens 57 points lower, Nifty at 23,698

Indian equities tracking mixed global cues started Wednesday's session on a negative note after the first advanced GDP estimates for FY25 were pegged at 6.4 per cent, largely in-line with expectations. At the open, Sensex was down 0.07 per cent or 56.57 points at 78,142.54, while the Nifty50 index traded with a mild cut of 0.04 per cent or 10.15 points at 23,697.75. Broader markets performed mixed, with the Nifty Midcap 100 index in the red, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index traded with mild gains.

Sectorally, the trend was mixed, with IT, banks, financial services and consumer durable stocks in the red, while sectors like FMCG, auto, pharma, realty and oil & gas traded with gains up to 0.6 per cent.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services noted, "The trend of strong US macros weakening emerging markets is continuing. The US 10-year bond yield has spiked to 4.67% on better-than-expected jobs numbers and indications of the services sector doing very well. This means the Fed may hold rates in January leading to further strengthening of the dollar and rising bond yields. The fall out of this on the Indian macros is that the RBI may hold rates in February against the market expectation of a cut."

In this macro setting, FIIs are likely to continue selling, putting pressure on the market, he added.

Asian markets

In Wednesday's trade, Asian stocks were a mixed bag, with China stocks in the red after the US added more of the leading companies to the blacklist. At the last count, the key MSCI Asia ex Japan index traded in the red, down by 0.55 per cent at 568.35.

Japanese markets also suffered a blow as government officials warned of intervention in the currency market.

Technical outlook

Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "We had gone in yesterday, expecting a continuation of “sell on rallies” bias, but with preparation for riding a brief upswing. But the upswing hardly took off, with trades sticking to the 23700- 750 vicinity for most part. Yet, the inside bar formed thereof encourages us to persist with upswing expectations, though we continue to see 23900 as well as 24000 attempting to keep the bias on a “sell on rallies mode”."

As maintained yesterday, the recent low of 23263 is not far, but there is a fair possibility of the ongoing downswings to ease off without penetrating 23400. We believe an outright fall below 23263 may take a while to evolve. Major supports below are seen at 23000 and 22260, he added.