FIRST TRADE: Indian equities open weak; Sensex down 203 pts, Nifty falls 0.41% to 24,204

FIRST TRADE (November 4, 2024): Indian equities in Monday's trade despite positive Asian markets opened in the red. At the start, Nifty was down 0.41 per cent or 100.1 points at 24,204.25, while the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 0.25 per cent or 202.92 points at 79,521.2. 

The drag came amid across-the-board selling pressure, with consumer durables and oil & gas facing the most sell-off with a cut of over 1 per cent each.

Meanwhile, the Bank Nifty in a volatile session after gains  of around 19 per cent in the last Samvat traded with a cut of 0.5 per cent.

Broader markets underperformed the headline indices with the Nifty Smallcap 100 index down over 1 per cent.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "In the next couple of days markets globally will be focused on the US presidential elections and there can be near-term volatility in response to the election outcome."

However, this is likely to be short-lived and economic fundamentals like US growth, inflation and the Fed action will influence the market trend, he added.

Currently, the Indian market is facing the wrath of decelerating earnings growth. Nifty EPS growth as indicated by Q2 results may dip below 10 per cent in FY25 which will render the present valuations of about 24 times estimated FY25 earnings difficult to sustain, noted Vijaykumar. 

Stocks in focus

Auto stocks:

Auto stocks will remain in focus after the October sales data from auto majors, including M&M, Maruti Suzuki, and Hero MotoCorp, among others.

Sun Pharma:

The pharma major stock will also gain traction as the latest US court ruling has resulted in the delay in the launch of its new drug, LEQSELVITM (deuruxolitinib).

Asian markets 

Meanwhile, Asian stocks in Monday's trade largely traded in the green as investors awaited for more cues on China's fiscal stimulus from the upcoming meeting of the China's top policymakers later this week. Trading volume, however, remained thin due to a market holiday in Japan.