Benchmarks opened nearly unchanged on Wednesday, as persistent foreign institutional selling and elevated crude oil prices tempered momentum from the previous session’s sharp recovery. The Nifty 50 opened at 22,715.75 and was trading at 22,698.25, down 23.70 points or 0.10 per cent, at 9.26 am. The Sensex opened at 73,049.76 and slipped to 73,020.19, down 13.59 points or 0.02 per cent, against its previous close of 73,033.78.
The subdued open followed Tuesday’s broad-based rebound, in which the Nifty closed at 22,721.95, up 358.60 points or 1.60 per cent, and the Sensex surged approximately 1,100 points. Information technology stocks led that recovery after HCL Technologies posted better-than-expected quarterly results, sending HCL Tech up 8 per cent and TCS up 6.6 per cent. The IT index gained over 5 per cent on Tuesday, with Metal, PSU Bank, Auto, Consumer Durables and Realty each adding around 1 per cent. Energy and Pharma ended in the red.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comment at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum also contributed to Tuesday’s rally. She said “the government would carefully review and discuss stakeholder feedback regarding the LTCGs tax and STT,” raising hopes of revisions to the capital gains tax framework. Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said “the bears with short positions must have run for short-covering in a market which suddenly turned,” but cautioned that “the US 10-year bond yield hovering around 5.2 per cent and Brent crude trading around $106 continue to be strong headwinds for the market” and that “it would be difficult for the rally to sustain given these negatives.”
IT stocks continued to attract buyers in early Wednesday trade. TCS was at ₹2,318, up 2.69 per cent, Infosys rose 1.76 per cent to ₹1,080.80, and HCL Tech gained 1.23 per cent to ₹1,342.30. Coal India added 1.54 per cent to ₹414.80, and Nestle India rose 1.31 per cent to ₹1,351.50.
Financial and pharmaceutical stocks faced selling pressure. Shriram Finance was the top Nifty loser, down 2.41 per cent at ₹964.20, followed by Bajaj Finance, which fell 1.40 per cent to ₹969.00, and HDFC Life, which declined 1.02 per cent to ₹554.30. In pharmaceuticals, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories dropped 1.24 per cent to ₹1,224.60 and Sun Pharma fell 0.98 per cent to ₹1,753.30.
On the currency front, the Reserve Bank of India’s intervention to curb speculation and ease dollar demand pushed the rupee to approximately ₹95.28 per dollar on Tuesday. Despite this, foreign institutional investors extended their selling streak to 13 consecutive sessions on Tuesday, recording net outflows of approximately ₹1,305 crore, though the pace moderated. Domestic institutional investors countered with net purchases exceeding ₹2,439 crore.
Vijayakumar added that “segments like financials, telecom, metals and automobiles which are likely to report good Q2 numbers will remain resilient,” flagging the ongoing earnings season as a key support for select sectors amid broader uncertainty.
Brent crude was trading around $105–$106 a barrel, with attacks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen sustaining a geopolitical premium and adding to inflation concerns. US consumer price index data, due after Indian market hours, is the next major trigger — a higher-than-expected reading could lift the dollar and bond yields further.
Globally, Wall Street closed marginally lower on Tuesday, dragged by mixed bank earnings and continued weakness in semiconductor stocks. Asian markets were trading higher on Wednesday. Japan’s elevated wholesale inflation has raised expectations of a near-term Bank of Japan rate hike. China’s producer inflation exceeded forecasts due to rising commodity costs, though consumer prices remained soft. Germany confirmed September inflation at 3.3 per cent, while France faced worsening fiscal pressures from rising bond yields.
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research at Kotak Neo, said “the 22,480/72,500 level would act as an important support level for traders,” with “a successful breakout above 22,850/73,500” needed to push the market toward 23,000/74,000.