FIRST TRADE: Equities weak for seventh day; Sensex down over 200 pts, Nifty around 23,475

Indian equiites in Monday's trade started on a . At the start, Sensex and Nifty opened in the green and soon moved into the red with Sensex down 0.08 per cent or 63.89 at 77,516, Nifty is down 18.4 or 0.08 per cent at 23,514.3. Broader markets meanwhile traded mixed, with the Nifty Midcap 100 in the green.

Bank Nifty also traded mildly higher led by counters such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and IDFC First Bank among others.

Sectorally, Realty and Metal pack traded in the green, while IT pack saw the most cut of up to 2 per cent, followed by PSU Bank and FMCG stocks.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities said GIFT Nifty is down to 23,491, shedding 150 points from Thursday’s close, despite tumbling oil prices at $67 a barrel, which provided a brief positive catalyst. However, bearish sentiment prevails as FIIs pulled out Rs 29,533 crore in November, bringing the total outflow to Rs 1.25 lakh crore since Nifty’s peak in September.

With Nifty slipping below its 200-DMA and down 10% from its high, the market looks vulnerable to further downside.

Weak leads from Wall Street and rising US bond yields add to the anxiety, he added.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "Even though Nifty has corrected 10.4% from the peak there are no signs of a sustained recovery in the market. Relentless FII selling, earnings downgrades for majority of stocks for FY25, and the consequences of the Trump trade are weighing on the market. Sentiments have turned negative and, therefore, investors should exercise caution at this stage and wait for clarity on the direction of the market. With the dollar index strong at 106.6 and the 10-year US  bond yield at 4.44% there is no room for a quick reversal of FII flows. Investors can focus on areas of strength like digital companies and high quality banking stocks."

Asian markets

Asian markets mostly traded mixed with the Hang Seng index up over 1 per cent, while the Japan's Nikkei continued to trade weak by nearly 1 per cent. The key MSCI Asia ex Japan index traded 0.5 per cent higher at 578.2.