First Trade: Indices snap four-day rally, Sensex down 216 points, Nifty at 23,146

Indian equities in Friday's session (March 21, 2025) opened lower tracking weak Asian markets. At the open, Nifty was down 0.19 per cent or 44.6 points at 23,146.05, while the Sensex was down 0.28 per cent or 215.51 at 76,132.55.

Meanwhile, broader markets were up by a tad, outperforming the headline indices. Sectorally, IT sector was the laggard in trade today, with the index falling over 2 per cent, while consumer durable index also fell.

Furthermore, all other sectoral gauges traded with realty and oil & gas indices leading the gains.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "The rally in the market this week which saw the Nifty rise by 3.5% has come at a time when trade tensions are escalating and more is expected when the reciprocal tariffs kick in on April 2nd. The main driver of the rally is the buying by FIIs in the cash market in two days and perhaps, more importantly, sharp decline in their short positions and increase in long positions in the futures market. It appears that this has given confidence to retail investors who have resumed buying in the broader market which is getting reflected in the smart rebound in the mid and smallcap indices"

A significant feature of the rally is that majority of the gainers are the domestic consumption themes which will be insulated from the reciprocal tariffs. Investors may wait and watch for the reciprocal tariff announcement on April 2nd before deciding on investment strategy, he added.

From the Nifty50 pack, top gainers in trade today were stocks like Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Sun Pharma, Shriram Finance and NTPC, while laggards included stocks like Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, TCS and Tech Mahindra.
 

Asian markets

Asian markets in today's trade were trading on a muted note as investors discounted the outlook for increased US tariffs as well as interest rates. The key MSCI Asia ex Japan index was down 0.83 per cent lower.