Nifty, Sensex slip Friday morning on weak global cues
Photo: IANS
The domestic benchmark posted its seventh straight day of gains in opening trade on Friday amid weak global cues.
Market breadth remained positive as 1700 BSE stocks advanced, 1050 declined and 140 were flat.
The broader market outperformed the benchmark, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indexes currently in the red. India’s volatility index VIX also surged more than 4% on Friday morning.
Nifty Auto IT fell more than 1 percent, the worst performer among sector indicators in early trade. Auto industry leader Maruti Suzuki dropped more than 1% on Friday morning after reporting monthly sales figures rose 14.3% yesterday. Bank Nifty also fell 0.47% to 43,059.05 points.
Nifty Oil & Gas managed to make modest gains after the government slashed the windfall tax on petroleum crude oil to Rs 4,900 per tonne. The special additional excise duty on diesel exports was reduced to Rs 6.5 per liter. Changes to the windfall profits tax come into effect today.
In a positive development on the macroeconomic front, India’s goods and services tax (GST) revenue surged 11 percent to 1.45 trillion rupiah in November from 1.31 trillion rupiah in the same month last year, according to data shared by the finance ministry on Thursday. This is the ninth consecutive month that GST revenue has remained above Rs 1.4 lakh.
Globally, U.S. and European markets ended the previous session mixed. Asian markets remained subdued on Friday, with Japanese shares down around 2%, dampening investor sentiment.