Sensex drops 38 points in morning trade

MUMBAI: The key indices of the domestic equities market opened in the negative territory, despite strong global cues prevailing on Friday morning. While shares of ITC fell 1 per cent to Rs 415.9 apiece in the morning, shares of SBI gained 1 per cent to Rs 582.7 per piece on Friday

BSE 30-share Sensex lost 38 points to 61,393.68 and NSE Nifty 50 dropped 30 points to 18,106.40 in morning trade on Friday.

In the Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 176 points, Japan's Nikkei gained 318 points, China's Shanghai lost 1.64 points and Thailand Set was trading in the negative territory. In the US markets, Nasdaq gained 188 points, Dow Jones went up 115 points, NYSE gained 32 points and S and P 500 went up 39 points.

In the European market, CAC, BEL, Amsterdam Exchange, Madrid SE and Deutsche Borse were trading in the positive territory, FTSE 100 gained 19 points and FTSE 250 surged 82 points when Asian markets opened on Friday. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remain the net buyers in the domestic equity market with an inflow of Rs 970.18 crore on Wednesday, according to NSE data. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers with Rs 849.96 crore.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar on Wednesday. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 82.37, compared with its close of 82.25 during the previous trading session.

Experts said the local currency is expected to extend its decline on Friday, weighed by a rising dollar index and US yields following hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials. State Bank of India (SBI) dropped 2.11 per cent on BSE.

The largest PSU bank reported 83.18 per cent surge in standalone net profit to Rs 16,695 crore on a 29.41% increase in total income to Rs 1,06,912.46 crore in third quarter of fiscal 2022-23 (Q3 FY23) over Q3 FY22. Shares of FMCG giant ITC were trading 1.81 per cent down at Rs 412.20 on Friday morning.

GAIL declared its standalone net profit with 77 per cent slump in its net proft for the quarter 2023. The shares of the company were trading 3.64 per cent down at Rs 106 apiece at the closing of Thursday.