Sensex falls over 200 pts, Nifty below 25,900 as foreign flow woes linger

Indian equities opened lower on Tuesday, with the Sensex and Nifty extending their recent slide as muted year-end trading and persistent unease over foreign fund flows kept investors on the sidelines.

The BSE Sensex declined 204 points, or 0.24%, to trade at 84,491.20, while the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 58.65 points, or 0.23%, to 25,883.45, reflecting a cautious start amid thin volumes and limited risk appetite.

On the 30-stock Sensex, shares of Eternal, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel and HCL Technologies were among the top decliners, sliding between 0.5% and 2%.

Broader markets were subdued, with small-cap and mid-cap stocks largely unchanged.

The Nifty has fallen about 0.9% over the past three sessions, while the Sensex is down roughly 1% across four sessions, as profit-taking in thin year-end trade weighed on sentiments.

"A clear directional change will happen only early in the new year when large institutions are back in action. It would be better for investors to watch the market now and wait for new triggers and new directional moves. However, weakness in the market can be used to nibble at high-quality large caps," said Vijayakumar.

The auto sales numbers expected in two days will give an indication of the sustainability of the consumption boom in the economy, Vijayakumar said, adding that this is significant from the economic growth perspective, too.

Oil prices held most of their overnight gains after Russia accused Ukraine of attacking President Vladimir Putin’s residence, a claim Moscow offered no evidence for but one that nonetheless clouds U.S.-led efforts to broker a peace deal. Separately, China added to regional tensions by launching live-fire military drills around Taiwan.

Thin liquidity in a holiday-shortened week amplified volatility across markets. Silver was the standout mover, tumbling 8.7% overnight in its steepest one-day decline since August 2020, reversing part of a rally that had grown increasingly speculative.

MSCI’s broad Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan slipped 0.1% but remains up 26.7% for the year, its strongest annual gain since 2017. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.2% and is up about 26% in 2025, while Taiwanese stocks dropped 0.7% and China’s blue-chip index eased 0.3% amid the military exercises.

U.S. Treasury yields edged lower, with the two-year yield down 1 basis point at 3.4524% and the benchmark 10-year yield easing to 4.1082%.

Brent crude futures for February delivery, set to expire later Tuesday, fell 21 cents, or 0.3%, to $61.73 a barrel by 0150 GMT. The more actively traded March contract slipped 19 cents, or 0.3%, to $61.30 a barrel.

The dollar index was little changed at 98.02, with investors awaiting the Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes for clues on internal divisions over the policy outlook for the year ahead.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)