Mumbai, Dec 15 (IANS) Indian stock markets opened on a weak note on Monday as a subdued global market mood affected investor sentiment.

During early trade, the Sensex slipped nearly 280 points in early trade to hover around 84,989, marking a fall of about 0.33 per cent. The Nifty also started the day lower, trading near 25,966, down 81 points or 0.31 per cent.

Commenting on the technical outlook, experts said that the support is placed around 25,850–25,900.

“On the upside, resistance is seen at 26,150–26,200, which remains a critical hurdle for any meaningful recovery. A decisive close above 26,200 is required to revive bullish momentum and open the path toward 26,500. Until then, the index is likely to remain range-bound with a negative bias,” market watchers stated.

Most heavyweight stocks were under pressure in the opening session. Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra, Trent, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, TCS, Titan, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Finance were among the top losers on the Sensex, declining by up to 1.4 per cent.

Only a handful of stocks managed to stay in the green. Asian Paints, Bharat Electronics (BEL), Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and UltraTech Cement were the sole gainers on the benchmark index.

The broader market also reflected the cautious mood. The Nifty MidCap index fell by 0.40 per cent, while the Nifty SmallCap index was down 0.15 per cent in early trade.

Sector-wise, realty stocks faced the maximum selling pressure, with the Nifty Realty index slipping 0.8 per cent. Auto and pharma stocks also saw losses, as the Nifty Auto and Nifty Pharma indices declined around 0.6 per cent each.

“Given the current setup, traders should adopt a cautious buy-on-dips approach strictly near support levels, with tight stop-losses,” experts stated.

“Aggressive long positions should be avoided until key resistance levels are decisively breached, while partial profit booking on pullbacks remains prudent in this range-bound and volatile environment,” they mentioned.

–IANS

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