Sensex, Nifty decline in early trade

Mumbai, Apr 3 (PTI) Equity market witnessed volatile trade on Monday morning, with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declining amid mixed trend in Asia and concerns over the inflation trajectory.

As the market swung between positive and negative territories in early trade, the 30-share Sensex fell 53.63 points or 0.09 per cent to 58,937.89 points.

The 50-share Nifty dropped 9.60 points or 0.06 per cent to 17,350.15 points.

Among the Sensex firms, Maruti Suzuki emerged as the biggest gainer as it jumped 2.50 per cent. NTPC, M&M, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finserv and Titan were the other major winners.

Meanwhile, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and TCS were among the laggards.

On Friday, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended the last day of 2022-23 fiscal with nearly 2 per cent jump on Friday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex zoomed 1,031.43 points or 1.78 per cent to finish at 58,991.52. The broader NSE Nifty climbed 279.05 points or 1.63 per cent to end at 17,359.75.

On the first trading session of the 2023-24 financial year, investors seemed to be cautious about various macroeconomic data and the spike in oil price against the backdrop of high inflationary trends, traders said.

They will be also awaiting RBI Monetary Policy Committee’s decision on interest rate later this week, they added.

Asian markets witnessed mixed trends on Monday, while the European and the US markets had closed with gains on Friday. Sensex and Nifty too had ended the day with substantial gains.

On Sunday, oil prices rose after Saudi Arabia led an oil production cut across several OPEC+ nations.

The group’s decision to reduce output by more than 1 million barrels a day is a jolt to markets that had been looking to a near-term peak in inflationary pressure.

It also likely limits the latitude central banks might have to relax monetary policy even if the economy slows, Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC securities, said.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said there are more headwinds for markets at this stage, including the rise in Brent crude price. This will make inflation management tough for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), he added.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 5.50 per cent to USD 84.28 per barrel.

On Friday, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers as they purchased shares worth Rs 357.86 crore.