Indian stock markets opened lower on Friday morning, dragged down by weak global cues, fresh foreign fund selling and jitters over stalled US–Iran nuclear talks that could spark Middle East tensions.
The BSE Sensex fell as much as 575 points to 81,673.38, while the NSE Nifty slipped a little over 204 points to 25,292.40 in early trade, erasing much of Thursday’s flat close.
FIIs sell ₹3,466 crore, IT bucks the trend
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,465.99 crore on Thursday, extending their selling streak amid valuation concerns and global uncertainty, exchange data showed.
Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) countered with net buying of Rs 5,031.57 crore, providing some support to the market.
From the Sensex pack, heavyweight losers included UltraTech Cement. Maruti Suzuki, Indigo, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, and Mahindra & Mahindra. Except for eight, the rest plunged. reflecting broad-based selling in autos, telecoms, FMCG and banking.
IT stocks bucked the downtrend, with Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and Eternal posting gains—helped by a US tech rebound and hopes for AI-driven earnings recovery.
Global tensions and the US–Iran shadow
Asian markets set a negative tone, with South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Shanghai’s SSE Composite in the red, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng bucked the trend.
US indices ended mostly lower on Thursday after US–Iran negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme ended without a deal, raising fears of a potential US strike and wider conflict, analysts said.
Analysts are of the opinion that rising uncertainty over US policy on Iran, combined with no fresh domestic triggers, was keeping investors cautious and selective ahead of India’s GDP data later today. The Nifty and Sensex have shed 0.4 per cent and 0.7 per cent this week so far, after a volatile February.