Indian Stock Market Opens Lower Amid Mixed Global Signals, Auto Stocks Under Pressure

Mumbai, October 1 (Daily Kiran) : The Indian stock market opened lower on Thursday, October 1, amid mixed global signals. At 9:22 AM, the Sensex fell by 160 points, or 0.22%, to reach 72,319, while the Nifty dropped 79 points, or 0.35%, to settle at 22,541.

Auto stocks faced the most pressure during early trading, with the Nifty Auto index emerging as the top loser. Other sectors such as Nifty Consumption, Nifty Realty, Nifty Media, Nifty Infrastructure, Nifty Healthcare, Nifty India Defense, Nifty Commodities, Nifty PSU, Nifty Oil and Gas, Nifty Pharma, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Energy, and Nifty PSU Bank also showed declines.

Conversely, the Nifty IT, Nifty Private Bank, and Nifty Financial Services indices experienced gains. Both mid-cap and small-cap stocks declined alongside large-cap shares. The Nifty Midcap 100 index fell by 404 points, or 0.68%, to 58,936, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped by 197 points, or 1.04%, to 19,044.

Most Asian markets displayed mixed performance. Tokyo, Taipei, and Seoul traded in the green, while Jakarta remained in the red. In the U.S., major indices closed mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones down by 0.86% and the technology index Nasdaq up by 0.24%.

Experts noted that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have intensified selling over the past two trading days, offloading shares worth ₹20,128 crore. The rise in the U.S. 10-year bond yield to 5.3% may continue to drive FII selling. Interestingly, despite selling through exchanges, FIIs are consistently investing in the primary market and purchasing expensive mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

Analysts suggest that investors could take advantage of the current market weakness to accumulate quality stocks, particularly large-cap stocks in growth segments, where the risk-reward ratio is favorable for investment.