BENGALURU: Indian shares opened lower on Friday, tracking a sell-off in global peers, after weaker-than-expected US data sparked concerns of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy.
The NSE Nifty 50 fell 0.82% to 24,805.7 points as of 9:19 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex shed 0.84% to 81,196.52. All the 13 major sectors logged losses.
The broader, more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps dropped 1% each.
India’s Nifty 50 and S&P BSE Sensex had logged gains in the last four sessions, rising about 0.7% each over the period.
Asian markets fell on the day, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index losing 2.3%. Wall Street equities slid overnight after weak US manufacturing and labour market data sparked fears of a worsening economic outlook.
While the Federal Reserve had signalled on Wednesday that the rate cut could begin from September, the odds of a 50 basis point rate cut next month have risen to 31.5% from 11.8% after the latest data, according to CME FedWatch.
Investors now await the nonfarm payroll data due later in the day to gauge the health of the US labour market.
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“Investor sentiment has turned nervous in the United States on the possibility of a recession after Thursday’s data,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
“This will have an impact on the Indian market too, as the rally in India has been sustained more by liquidity than fundamentals,” Vijayakumar added.
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