Indian markets ended Friday's session on a negative note after three days of gains as the volatility crept in today with India recording more than double cases of Omicron compared to last week. The markets ignored the positive cues from Asian peers as all sectoral indices except IT witnessed selling pressure and closed in the red.
The 30-pack Sensex opened higher in the morning on positive global cues to claim a day’s high of 57,624 but soon pared gains as the sentiments turned negative and made an intra-day low of 56,813. At close, Sensex stood at 57,124, down 191 points or 0.33 percent.
The NSE's Nifty opened with a gain of 77 points and made an intra-day high of 17,150 but breached the 17,000 level to make an intra-day low of 16,909. It closed the day 74.5 points or 0.4 percent lower at 17,004.
“Nifty index opened positive at 17,150 zones but it could not sustain at higher levels and drifted towards 16,900 zones”, said Chandan Taparia, Vice President | Analyst-Derivatives at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
“Weighed by muted global markets and continued FII selling, domestic indices erased its mid-day gains to slip into the red led by selling pressure in index heavyweights”, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Nifty took support at lower zones led by buying in a few heavyweights and IT counters but it failed to enter the positive territory and fell back below the 17,000-mark.
The markets remain highly volatile amid rising omicron cases, higher monetary policies, and inflationary woes, Nair added.
India VIX, which indicates the degree of volatility traders expect over the next 30 days, moved up 2.07% from 15.82 to 16.14 levels. “Volatility needs to cool down to 15-14 zones for stability in the market”, said Taparia.
(With inputs from agencies)