Sensex Opens 135 Points Lower, Nifty Falls Below 25,000 As Profit Booking Follows Last Week’s Strong Rally

Stock Market Today, November 9: Indian benchmark indices began Monday’s trading session in negative territory as investors opted to lock in profits after last week’s strong rally. Selling in information technology, automobile and FMCG shares weighed on the market, while gains in banking stocks provided some support to the benchmarks.

At 9:17 am, the BSE Sensex stood at 80,864.89, declining 134.51 points or 0.17%. The NSE Nifty 50 was trading at 24,963.90, down 22.50 points or 0.09%, slipping below the crucial 25,000 mark.

The mild correction followed a remarkable recovery in the previous week. The Nifty 50 had climbed approximately 6.5% from its November 2 level of 23,440.80, reflecting improved investor confidence and renewed buying interest in domestic equities.

Banking shares helped limit the losses in early trading. The Nifty Bank index gained 0.61%, while the Nifty Financial Services index advanced 0.59%. The Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Private Bank indices also traded higher, rising 0.90% and 0.56%, respectively.

However, weakness was more visible across mid-cap and small-cap shares. The Nifty Midcap 100 declined 0.31%, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 slipped 0.35%. The Nifty 500 was also down 0.14%.

Among sectoral indices, information technology stocks witnessed the steepest decline. The Nifty IT index fell 1.45%, while the Nifty MidSmall IT & Telecom index dropped 1.23%. Automobile and FMCG shares also remained under pressure, with their respective indices losing 0.51% and 0.49%.

Pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks, meanwhile, attracted buying interest. The Nifty Pharma index advanced 0.68%, followed by the Nifty Financial Services 25/50 index, which gained 0.65%. The Nifty Healthcare index was also up 0.63%.

On the Sensex heatmap, SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and IndiGo featured among the early gainers. In contrast, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever and Maruti Suzuki were among the stocks facing selling pressure.

The India VIX, which measures expected market volatility, edged up to 18.44, indicating that uncertainty remained relatively elevated despite the recent improvement in market sentiment.

WHAT IS DRIVING THE MARKET?

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said the strong rally witnessed last week had significantly improved market sentiment. He attributed the recovery to a combination of favourable domestic and global developments, including aggressive buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), reasonable valuations, declining crude oil prices and lower US bond yields.

He also pointed to improving corporate earnings, as reflected in the second-quarter results, and a possible slowdown in the artificial intelligence-driven investment trend as factors influencing global market movements.

According to Vijayakumar, the victory of Democrats in the US elections acted as a trigger for the rally by raising concerns over the pace of AI spending and prompting a correction in AI-related stocks.

He further indicated that foreign investor buying could continue, potentially supporting another upward move in large-cap shares. He noted that during major market shifts, foreign institutional investors tend to adjust their allocations in line with changes in benchmark index weightings.