The S&P BSE Sensex dipped 82 points, or 0.1%, to 84,590.79 at the opening bell. The NSE Nifty 50 slid 31 points, or 0.12%, to begin trading at 25,878.60.
On the 30-stock Sensex, Tata Motors PV, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, Adani Ports, Eternal and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the biggest drags, slipping between 1% and 2%.
The Nifty IT index was the lone bright spot, rising about 1%, even as most other sectoral gauges hovered in the red.
Broader markets were largely unchanged, with mid-cap and small-cap indices trading flat.
Global cues offered little support. U.S. equities fell overnight on renewed valuation concerns, while most Asian markets stayed cautious after Tuesday’s sharp pullback.Expert viewsAn anti-AI trade is playing out in global markets now, said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, adding that “respected experts like Google CEO Sundar Pichai are voicing concerns about the irrationality in AI trade. Nasdaq is down 1526 points from the recent peak. Even though there are optimists who still bet on AI trade, there are concerns of a bubble formation in AI stocks.”
The steady decline in AI stocks, without a major crash, is good for India, said Vijayakumar, adding that the FPIs are likely to start buying in India if the present trend of AI trade fading sustains for some more time and India’s outperformance vis-a-vis other AI markets like South Korea and Taiwan during the last few days is an indication of this trend.
“Investors should prioritise safety at this juncture. Safety is in large caps. Large segments of the mid and small cap space are overvalued having been driven up only by liquidity flows from exuberant investors,” said Vijayakumar.
FII/DII Tracker
On the institutional front, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold equities worth roughly Rs 729 crore on November 18, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 6,157 crore.
MORE TO COME…