Mumbai: Indian benchmarks—the Sensex and Nifty 50—both dropped around 1% in early trading on November 4, kicking off a pivotal week influenced by the upcoming US Presidential election and the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting. The decline in these indices was fueled by sell-offs in major stocks like Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank, all trading in negative territory.
By 9:45 am, the Sensex had fallen 781.26 points, or 0.98%, to 78,942.86, while the Nifty dropped 249.80 points, or 1.03%, to 24,054.50. Market breadth leaned strongly towards losers, with 999 stocks gaining, 2,237 declining, and 134 remaining unchanged.
By 11 am the indices extended the losses as the Sensex plunged by 1295.51 points or 1.62% to 78,428.61 points and nifty dropped by 417.35 points or 1.72% to 23,887 points.
The primary events in focus this week are the US Presidential election on November 5 and the Federal Reserve’s policy announcement on November 7. The Fed is anticipated to announce another rate cut—likely by a quarter percentage point. However, investor sentiment remains cautious as the tightly contested US election could significantly influence economic policies in the world’s largest economy, with far-reaching impacts on global markets.