Stock market: Sensex and Nifty50 make muted opening

The domestic equity market had a rather flat opening on Monday (September 19) amid weak global cues. Both benchmarks, Nifty50 and Sensex started near their previous closing. Nifty50 opened at 17,540.65 while Sensex started near 58,747.31.

Nifty Midcap and small cap traded lower by 0.4 per cent each. All sectoral indices except PSU Bank and Oil and gas declined on Monday. Nifty PSU Bank rose nearly one per cent in the opening trade.

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IndusInd Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, the State Bank of India, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank were amongst the top gainers whereas UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Titan, Dr. Reddy, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance and Sun Pharma were amongst the top losers.

A drop was anticipated after a fall in US stocks on Friday (September 16) following a warning from the US Federal Reserve about worsening trends in the economy. US inflation numbers have caused the dollar to hover around 110.

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The US 10-year bond yields are at a multiyear high of 3.5 per cent and everyone is now awaiting the results of the US FOMC meeting scheduled for September 22. The Bank of England would on the same day announce its interest rate decision.

In the US, the S&P500 index traded at 28.02 points or 0.7 per cent lower at 3,873 whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 139.40 points or 0.5 per cent lower to reach 30,822.

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Asian stocks too traded lower on Monday (September 19). Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunged 1.11 per cent, South Korea’s KOSPI declined 0.91 per cent and Singapore’s Hang Seng index declined by 1.14 per cent.