Markets Turn Red Early: Why Sensex, Nifty Are Under Pressure

Indian equity markets opened Thursday with some caution, adding to the recent weakness as the leading indices immediately after the opening bell fell into negative territory.

The NSE Nifty50 started below the 25,800 level and was at 25,784.80 around 9:16 am, showing a loss of 34 points or 0.13 percent. The BSE Sensex also moved lower, losing 147 points or 0.17 percent, and reached 84,412.18 during the first hours of trading.

Traders in the market noticed that the sentiment on the street of Dalal is still quite weak even though there is occasional support from the institutions. The technical analysts who are monitoring the near-time movements think that the Nifty may touch the support levels of 25,700–25,650. It is only if the index is above these zones that a sustainable bounce back is then going to happen. On the other hand, selling is likely to arise around 25,950–26,000 if any rise is attempted.

With regard to the general market direction, Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, spoke of a shift in global trends that were influencing domestic equities. He pointed out that the slowing down of AI-related trades in US markets is becoming stronger and could last into early 2026. In his view, this shift can just as slowly favour non-AI-focused markets like India.

Dr. Vijayakumar also drew attention to an uncommon pattern in the trading of the prior day session. Even though foreign institutional investors and the total institutional activity exhibited net buying, the benchmark indices were down. He explained the difference by the fact that there had been an increase in the short positions taken by FIIs, and thus foreign investors might employ a “sell-on-rise” strategy for the near future.

Global cues were not supportive. On Wednesday, Wall Street finished lower, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropping to their lowest points in almost three weeks. The inability of technology stocks, especially those of artificial intelligence, to perform well was the main factor that dragged down the US market indexes.

Asian markets followed the overnight decline by opening lower and the overall risk appetite in the region decreased. The concerns over the technology sector drove investors into safer assets, giving a minor boost to US Treasuries and gold and silver in the short term.

On the institutional side, provisional data indicated that foreign portfolio investors were selling off Indian stocks worth Rs 1,172 crore on Wednesday. However, domestic institutional investors were buying stocks worth Rs 769 crore and thus, could somewhat mitigate the impact.

The global uncertainties along with cautious approach by foreign investors are likely to make traders very selective and they will be closely looking at the technical levels and signals from overseas markets throughout the session.