BT Opening Bell | Sensex plunges 671 pts, Nifty below 23,400; Tata Steel, BEL lead losers

Domestic benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened lower on Wednesday, weighed down by weak global cues, rising crude oil prices and climbing bond yields amid persistent geopolitical tensions and inflationary worries, which dented investor sentiment.

At 9:18 am, the BSE Sensex plunged 512.65 points, or 0.68%, to 74,688.20, after falling as much as 671 points in early trade, while the NSE Nifty declined 159.40 points, or 0.67%, to 23,458.60, briefly touching a low of 23,397.30.

Among Sensex constituents, Tata Steel plunged 2.03% to Rs 205.05. Bharat Electronics (BEL) slipped 1.56%, while Eternal, M&M, and Maruti Suzuki dropped 1.52%, 1.35% and 1.33%, respectively.

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Broader Asian markets traded lower today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was trading 1.30% lower at 59,764.16, while South Korea’s Kospi traded down 2.32% at 7,103.03. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.90% to 25,565.49. 

Wall Street ended lower overnight, with all three major indices closing in the red. The S&P 500 declined 0.67% to settle at 7,353.61, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.65% to close at 49,363.88. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.84% to end at 25,870.71.

Previous session

In the previous session on Tuesday, the Sensex slumped 114.19 points, or 0.15%, to settle at 75,200.85, while the Nifty declined 31.95 points, or 0.14%, to close at 23,618.

As long as the Nifty remains below the critical resistance level of 23,800, consolidation with a negative bias is likely to persist, said Aakash Shah, Technical Research Analyst at Choice Equity Broking Private Ltd.

“A decisive close above 23,800 may improve sentiment and open the possibility of an upmove toward 24,000 followed by 24,250. On the downside, the 23,300 level remains an important immediate support zone, below which weakness may intensify further,” said Shah.