India markets opened in the red on Monday morning, with Sensex tanking more than 843 points and Nifty shedding over 258 points. Weak global trends and the outflow of foreign funds continued to bear down on the market, dampening investor expectations.
The robust US data released over the weekend and the rise in crude prices added to woes, as expectations of a prospective rate cut dimmed.
In the Sensex set, major losers were Asian Paints, Zomato, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Tata Steel. However, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, TCS, and Hindustan Unilever posted gains. All major sectors across the board fell, with small caps and midcaps shedding at least 1.5 per cent each.
US markets also saw red, when it closed later on Friday. When last week's trading ended, foreign investors offloaded Rs 2,254.68 crore in equities on Friday alone. With it, in 2025 so far, Rs 22,194 crore left the India markets.
V K Vijayakumar of Geojit Financial Services said that the markets in India would continue to feel the pressure on many strong headwinds. "The blowout jobs data from the US with 2.56 lakh job creation in December against expectations of 1.65 lakh means the rate cut expectations in 2025 is now down to one," said Vijayakumar.
Brent crude jumping to USD 81 also posed a concern for India, given how the American currency has been strengthening over the past month.
The rupee crashed to a new all-time low of 86.31 against the US dollar. According to latest RBI data, India’s forex reserves dropped to USD 634.585 billion as on January 3, as the apex bank tried to offset the rupee slide by selling dollars.