Markets muted: Nifty is struggling around 26,100 and the Sensex is down 130 points; Financials under pressure

The Indian equity market opened muted today. Both major benchmark indices – Sensex and the Nifty started the morning in negative territory. The Sensex opened the session at 85,325.50, marking a decline of 0.37%, while the Nifty also started lower at 26,088, down 0.34%. The Nifty Bank Index followed the weak trend and began the day at 59,354.20, slipping 0.55% in early trade. Let’s take a look at the key factors to watch in today’s trade – Early winners: Top gainers from the Sensex The top performers from the Sensex basket included Asian Paints, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Maruti among other stocks. Under pressure: Major losers in morning trade A few major names slipped into the red soon after the opening bell. Key laggards in today’s session were HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Adani Ports. Stocks in focus today Several companies are set to drive individual action as they announced important business developments, including mergers, leadership moves, fresh order wins and capacity expansion plans. Key stocks to watch today include Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Ambuja Cement, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Bharat Dynamics, Manganese Ore India Limited (MOIL), Bajaj Housing Finance, Amber Enterprises, among others. Market outlook: What experts are saying Even though the indices are hovering near record levels, analysts believe the market is currently taking a breather. “It appears that the market is consolidating around the new record highs before breaking out to new highs. There is fundamental support for newer highs as reflected in the robust Gross Domestic Product numbers and the leading indicators like auto sales in November. The continuing weakness in the rupee is a dampener which is impacting Foreign Institutional Investor flows. A fair trade deal between India and the United States can stem the weakness in rupee, but this has been hanging fire for too long,” said Dr. V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments He also added, “Investors can use the current period of consolidation to slowly accumulate fairly-valued largecaps and growth-oriented midcaps which will lead the next leg of rally in the market. The Smallcap segment continues to be over-valued. The Bank Nifty, despite the recent run up, have the potential to impart resilience to the market since there is valuation comfort in this segment. The pick up in credit growth is another positive for the segment.”