Indian equity markets stumbled out of the gate on the first trading day of the week. Both benchmark indices slipped into negative territory within minutes of the opening bell, and the damage was steepest among IT majors, with Infosys, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and TCS all opening sharply lower.
Sensex and Nifty slip at the open
The BSE Sensex began the session 69.38 points weaker at 76,446.05, a drop of roughly 0.09 percent. The NSE Nifty 50 fared similarly, opening 14.55 points down at 23,883.15, a loss of about 0.06 percent. This follows a week that had already seen the market under pressure, even though the previous session, on Friday, had ended with gains.
Market breadth turns weak
Only 10 of the 30 Sensex constituents opened in the green on Monday, leaving the remaining 20 stocks trading lower. The picture was even weaker on the Nifty 50, where just 13 of the 50 stocks advanced, 35 slipped into the red, and 2 opened flat with no change in price. The lopsided count underlines how broad the selling pressure was at the start of the session.
Biggest gainer and biggest loser
Among Sensex stocks, Bajaj Finance put in the strongest show, opening 0.69 percent higher. At the other end, IT bellwether Infosys took the hardest hit, falling 2.27 percent at the open, the sharpest decline of any constituent and a clear sign of where today's pressure was concentrated.
Stocks that opened higher
- Reliance Industries: up 0.03 percent
- SBI: up 0.10 percent
- Titan: up 0.12 percent
- ICICI Bank: up 0.25 percent
- L&T: up 0.30 percent
- Bharti Airtel: up 0.33 percent
- Tata Steel: up 0.42 percent
- Eternal: up 0.43 percent
- BEL: up 0.51 percent
Stocks that opened lower
- Power Grid: down 0.02 percent
- NTPC: down 0.02 percent
- Sun Pharma: down 0.07 percent
- UltraTech Cement: down 0.08 percent
- Trent: down 0.11 percent
- Bajaj Finserv: down 0.11 percent
- Adani Ports: down 0.11 percent
- ITC: down 0.19 percent
- HDFC Bank: down 0.34 percent
- Maruti Suzuki: down 0.35 percent
- Mahindra & Mahindra: down 0.38 percent
- Axis Bank: down 0.39 percent
- Hindustan Unilever: down 0.41 percent
- IndiGo: down 0.45 percent
- Kotak Mahindra Bank: down 0.49 percent
- Asian Paints: down 0.49 percent
- TCS: down 0.91 percent
- Tech Mahindra: down 1.01 percent
- HCL Tech: down 1.72 percent
Taken together, Monday's opening trade tilted decisively toward sellers. The headline decline on both indices was modest in percentage terms, but the majority of individual stocks were trading lower, and the sharp fall in IT counters stood out as the single biggest drag on the session's tone.
