Opening Bell: Markets In Red; Sensex At 65,788.79, Nifty Below 19,700

The markets on Friday morning opened lower with Sensex at 65,788.79, down by 193.69 points and Nifty at 19,695.15, down by 70.05 points.

Nifty Bank in the morning session was trading lower at 43,634.90, down by 526.65 or 1.19 per cent.

From Sensex pack, NTPC, TCS, Tata Motors, PowerGrid, and M&M were the major gainers in the morning session whereas Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank were among the major losers.

Markets on Thursday

The benchmark indices on Thursday ended the day on a positive note.The 30-share BSE Sensex was up by 299.80 points or 0.46 percent, to close at 65,975.73. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty, was rose by 87.10 points or 0.44 percent to end the day at 19,762.55.Nifty Bank shed 56.70 points or 0.13 percent at 44,145.

Global markets

On Thursday's trading session, the US stock market closed lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 45.74 points, marking a 0.13% decrease to 34,945.47. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 experienced a modest rise, gaining 5.36 points, or 0.12%, reaching 4,508.24. Similarly, the Nasdaq Composite increased by 9.84 points, or 0.07%, ending at 14,113.67..

On Friday, Asian markets were trading lower with Japan's Nikkei 225 up by 12.11points, reaching 33,436.52. Hong Kong's Hang Seng experienced a loss of 239.78 points, dropping to 17,593.04, while South Korea's KOSPI down 19.86 points, reaching 2,468.32.

Oil prices

On Thursday, the price of oil experienced a significant decrease of approximately 5%, marking its lowest point in four months. Brent futures closed down by $3.76, reflecting a decline of 4.6%, settling at $77.42 per barrel. Simultaneously, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) also dropped by $3.76, representing a decrease of 4.9%, reaching $72.90.

Rupee

The Indian rupee opened flat on Friday morning at 83.24 per dollar against Thursday's close of 83.23.