Stock market: Sensex slips 116 pts, Nifty flat; Infosys, TCS lead losers

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty began Tuesday’s session on a subdued note, trading largely flat to slightly lower. Market sentiment remained cautious in the absence of global cues and domestic catalysts, with activity muted ahead of the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

At 9:18 am, the BSE Sensex declined 98.90 points, or 0.12%, to 85,468.58 after losing nearly 116 points in early trade. The NSE Nifty dropped 20.75 points, or 0.08%, to 26,151.65, after briefly touching a low of 26,145.25.  

Among Sensex constituents, Infosys led losers, declining 1.71% to Rs 1,660.85. TCS dropped 0.70%, while Eternal, HCL Technologies and Bharti Airtel fell 0.63%, 0.60%, and 0.54%, respectively.

Wall Street ended higher overnight as all three major indices closed the session in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.47% to 448,362.68, while the S&P 500 rose 0.64% to close at 6,878.49. The tech-savvy Nasdaq Composite edged higher 0.52% to settle at 23,428.83.

Asian markets traded mostly higher on Tuesday. At last check, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.07% to 50,442.12, while South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.43% to 4,123.39. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged 0.18% higher to 25,848.12.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said that near-term market direction will be shaped by two key factors. Adding, “domestically the macros and fundamentals are positive and look promising.”

Vijayakumar said that this could strengthen bullish sentiment, potentially paving the way for the Nifty and Sensex to scale fresh highs in the near term. However, on the external front, the renewed momentum in the global AI trade remains a marginal headwind for domestic markets. 

“This can delay the much-anticipated reversal of FII outflows. There is more volatility ahead in AI trade. It remains to be seen how this will play out. Defence stocks appear to be staging a comeback. This segment has more room to go up. The IT segment, too, has turned resilient,” Vijayakumar added.