Indian Equities Open Flat as Global Signals Diverge

Indian stock markets opened on a subdued note on Wednesday, mirroring the cautious mood across global bourses. The Sensex shed 69.84 points to 75,940, while the Nifty slipped 23.10 points to 23,890, reflecting a flat start to the session. Sector rotation was evident. Defensive and cyclical groups such as metals, realty, media, manufacturing, defence, consumer durables, commodities, pharmaceuticals and healthcare indices advanced. In contrast, IT, energy, oil & gas and public sector indices remained in negative territory. Mid- and small-cap stocks led the charge. The Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 314 points to 62,613, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 115 points to 18,386, both registering gains of around 0.5–0.65 percent. Among Sensex constituents, NTPC, Eternal, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Power Grid, Bajaj Finserv, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel, Trent, L&T, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Tech Mahindra, TCS and Axis Bank traded higher. Losers included HDFC Bank, Infosys, BEL, ICICI Bank, HUL, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel and IndiGo. Overnight, mixed closes were witnessed on Wall Street, while Asian peers traded unevenly—Tokyo, Bangkok and Seoul rose, whereas Shanghai and Hong Kong fell. Meanwhile, FIIs sold equities worth ₹2,407.87 crore on Tuesday, while DIIs purchased ₹1,361.43 crore. Crude oil prices eased, with Brent at $98 and WTI at $92 per barrel.