Indian markets slip as weak global sentiment weighs on early trade

Early losses hit major Indian stocks, with experts urging cautious trading amid range-bound conditions.

Investor sentiment was impacted by a muted international market attitude on Monday, which caused Indian stock markets to open weakly. The Sensex fell by around 280 points to hover at 84,989 during early trade representing a decline of roughly 0.33 percent. The Nifty began the day down also closing at 25966 down 81 points or 0.31 percent.

According to experts who commented on the technical outlook, the support is situated between 25850 and 25900. Resistance on the upward is observed between 26150 and 26200 which continue to be an essential impediment to any further recovery. To recover bullish momentum and pave the way for 26500 a clear close over 26200 is needed.

According to market watchers, the index is probably going to stay range-bound with a negative tilt until then. The opening session saw pressure on the majority of heavyweight stocks. Among the biggest losers on the Sensex were shares of Mahindra & Mahindra, Trent, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, TCS, Titan, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Finance, which had declines of up to 1.4 percent.

Few stocks were able to maintain their gains. The sole gainers that improved on the benchmark index were Asian Paints, Bharat Electronics (BEL), Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and UltraTech Cement. The cautious stance was also evident in the larger market. In early trade, the Nifty SmallCap index fell 0.15 percent while the Nifty MidCap index dropped 0.40 percent.

The Nifty Realty index fell 0.8 percent, indicating that real estate equities were under the most selling force. The Nifty Auto and Nifty Pharma indices fell by about 0.6 percent each indicating losses in both the auto and pharmaceutical sectors.

Experts advised traders to use a cautious buy on dips strategy with tight stop losses only close to support levels, given the current setup.