Index heavyweights Infosys, TCS, and ICICI Bank pulled down the Indian benchmark equity indices, the Sensex and Nifty 50, which were slightly lower on Friday, tracking losses from their international counterparts.

At 79,407.01, the BSE Sensex was down 536.70 points, or 0.67%. Around 10:00 am, the Nifty50 was trading at 24,067.25, down 121.40 points, or 0.05%.

Among the leading laggards on the Sensex, ITC, TCS, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Zomato, and Tech Mahindra all had declines of up to 1% in early trading. Conversely, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, SBI, NTPC, and Nestle India all saw positive starts.

Following its announcement of a 17% year-over-year (YoY) increase in standalone sales for the quarter ending December 31, 2024, DMart opened with a 10% upper circuit among individual equities.

Following the company's announcement that it had its best-ever Q3 and 9-month performance in the quarter ending December 31, 2024, state-run MOIL shares likewise started 6% higher.

While sectors including Nifty Auto, Media, Metal, PSU Bank, Realty, Consumer Durables, and Oil & Gas opened with gains, the Nifty Pharma and IT indexes saw a decline of more than 0.5%.

Wall Street stocks closed lower overnight, but other Asian markets opened slightly higher.

Following economic statistics showing the US labor market remained stable, the U.S. dollar reached a two-year high, supporting optimism that the Fed could continue on a slower interest rate-cut path.

At its most recent policy meeting last month, the Fed reduced its earlier projection of four rate cuts to two for 2025.

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets now anticipate an 88.2% chance of a pause in January. Foreign investors would find emerging markets like India less appealing if US interest rates were higher.

Expert Opinion

"Today's huge 445-point gain in the Nifty demonstrated the market's amazing capacity for surprise. Even while FII buying contributed to the rally, V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, stated that the net purchase of Rs 1,506 crores was insufficient to for the Nifty to rise by such a significant 1.8%.

"The fact that largecaps are outperforming smallcaps is encouraging and might continue. But it's too soon to say that FIIs will keep making purchases. Vijayakumar continued, "The macrostructure is not favorable for persistent FII buying, with the dollar index at 109.25 and the US 10-year yield at 4.56%.

Choice Broking's Hardik Matalia stated: "The Nifty can find support at 24,000, followed by 23,900 and 23,800, following a negative opening. 24250 may be an immediate resistance on the higher side, followed by 24,350 and 24,500.

International Markets

As investors worry that US interest rates will remain high for an extended period of time, Asian equities gained Friday in an attempt to bounce back from a lackluster start to 2025. Meanwhile, the dollar was trading at a two-year high against a basket of currencies.

Although it was up 0.33%, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan was still headed for a weekly decline of about 1%.

After earlier gains failed to hold, U.S. stocks ended Thursday's trading session on Wall Street with a broad decline. Following the announcement of its first yearly decline in deliveries, Tesla's stock fell 6.1%.