First Trade: Indices snap 7-day winning streak; Sensex down over 50 pts, Nifty near 24,280

Indian equities, mirroring a mixed Asian market mood, opened lower on the expiry day. At the open, Sensex traded lower at 80,058, while the NSE’s Nifty50 was down at 24,277.9, meaning a loss of 50 points. Meanwhile, broader markets continued their gaining streak and were up mildly.

Bank Nifty, on the other hand, is trading lower dragged down by index heavyweights including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank among others.

Sectoral performance

In a mixed session, pharma, financials, FMCG and IT pack traded with gains, while Realty, consumer durable and oil & gas sectoral gauges were trading lower.

Stocks in action:

Bajaj Finance: Amid newsflow around the company’s board meeting on April 29 for stock split, bonus share, the stock rallied to a new all-time high today.

Bajaj Housing Finance: The company posted good quarterly numbers for the March quarter.

Asian markets

Asian markets traded in a tight range after mixed cues from US President Donald Trump on his likely stance on China in respect of tariffs. The key MSCI Asia ex Japan index fell 0.6 per cent. 

The losses were seen as enthusiasm on the Street, given the relief rally waned after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed doubtful on the progress of the resolution to the US-China trade war.

At the last count in early trade, Asian markets performed mixed, with the Japan’s Nikkei leading the gains up over 1 per cent. Meanwhile, Singapore’s Straits Times and also Jakarta Composite traded with gains of up to 0.8 per cent.

However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading down, while Australia’s S&P/ ASX 200 index was up by 0.6 per cent.

Outperformance in the Japanese markets is attributed to reports of more US trade talks.

South Korea’s Kospi traded weak by as much as 0.5 per cent as the country’s GDP or gross domestic product data pointed to unexpected contraction during the first quarter. The mood largely shrugged off positive earnings from SK Hynix.