Indian Stock Market Opens in Red, Pharma Stocks Face Heavy Selling

Mumbai (The Uttam Hindu): The Indian stock market opened in the red on Wednesday amid mixed signals from the global level. Heavy selling was seen in the pharma and IT sectors in early trade.

At around 9.31 am, the Sensex was trading 271.06 points, or 0.36 per cent, down at 75,696.33, while the Nifty was down 88 points, or 0.38 per cent, at 22,857.30. Nifty Bank was down 243.90 points, or 0.50 per cent, at 48,843.40. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading 384.55 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 49,366.90. The Nifty Smallcap 100 index was down 74.75 points, or 0.49 per cent, at 15,093.70.

On the technical front, according to market watchers, a base appears to be forming around the 22800-22700 zone, which is associated with the lower boundary of the falling wedge pattern. "There is strong support at every 100-point interval, with the key level being 22600-22500, which coincides with the 127 per cent return since early February," said Sameet Chavan of Angel One. "Given the recent price action, traders are advised to continue with the buy-on-dips approach," he added. Meanwhile, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, TCS, M&M, PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, Zomato, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever were the top losers in the Sensex pack. While, NTPC, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, L&T and SBI were the top gainers.

In the previous trading session in the US markets, the Dow Jones closed 0.02 per cent higher at 44,556.34. The S&P 500 index rose 0.24 per cent to close at 6,129.58 and the Nasdaq climbed 0.07 per cent to close at 20,041.26. In the Asian markets, Seoul and China were trading in the green. While Bangkok, Japan, Jakarta and Hong Kong were trading in the red. On the institutional front, after being net sellers in the previous nine sessions, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned buyers and bought equities worth Rs 4,786.56 crore on February 18. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued their buying spree for the 10th consecutive session and bought equities worth Rs 3,072.19 crore on the same day.