Indian equity benchmarks opened sharply lower on Friday amid broad-based selling, with pressure concentrated in information technology and metal stocks, as weakness in global markets weighed on investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex opened at 82,985, down nearly 690 points or 0.83 percent. The Nifty 50 opened at 25,589, registering a decline of 0.85 percent and slipping below the 25,550 mark earlier in trade.
Out of the 30 Sensex constituents, 26 were trading in the red. The IT sector witnessed the heaviest selling, with Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra among the major laggards. Shares of HUL, Trent, M&M, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, NTPC, Titan, L&T, Bajaj Finserv, IndiGo and Power Grid also traded lower.
Select stocks provided limited support to the benchmarks. SBI, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance and Maruti Suzuki India posted gains ranging between 0.1 percent and 0.48 percent.
Selling pressure extended to the broader market. The Nifty Midcap index declined 1.31 percent, while the Nifty Smallcap index fell 1.58 percent. India VIX rose about 4 percent, indicating increased market volatility.
Among sectoral indices, the Nifty IT index dropped around 5 percent. Infosys fell 5.6 percent, while TCS, HCL Tech, LTIMindtree, Coforge and Wipro remained under pressure. The metal index declined nearly 2 percent. The media index fell 1 percent and the FMCG sector was down 0.8 percent.
Consumer price index-based inflation for January 2026 stood at 2.75 percent, driven by higher prices of food items and precious metals. Rural inflation was recorded at 2.73 percent, while urban inflation came in at 2.77 percent. The data was released under the new CPI series of the Ministry of Statistics, with the base year revised from 2012 to 2024.
Asian markets also traded lower on Friday amid uncertainty related to artificial intelligence developments in the United States and selling in technology shares. Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined about 1.69 percent, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5 percent and Australia’s S&P ASX 200 dropped nearly 1.3 percent.
On Wall Street, US markets closed sharply lower on Thursday as investors reduced exposure to technology stocks and assessed corporate earnings. The S&P 500 declined 1.57 percent, the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.03 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.34 percent lower.
Several large and mid-sized companies are scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings on Friday, including Torrent Pharmaceuticals, GMR Airports, Siemens Energy India, Info Edge India, Alkem Laboratories, Fortis Healthcare, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Ipca Laboratories, ITI, NBCC India, IRB Infrastructure, Inox Wind, Kfin Technologies, Ola Electric Mobility and Vijaya Diagnostic Centre. Market participants are expected to track the impact of these results on related stocks.
In the SME segment, the IPO of Marushika Technology has entered its second day of subscription. Investor response to the issue will be closely monitored.
