Indian markets opened on a weak note on Friday, November 6, with NIFTY50 opening at 24,538.20 and slipping to 24,484.95, down 51.65 points or 0.21% from Thursday's close of 24,536.60. SENSEX opened at 79,413.66 and was trading at 79,349.62, up a marginal 39.61 points or 0.05% at 9:18 AM, reflecting mixed early trade. The gap-down start was widely anticipated after GIFT NIFTY signalled an opening around 24,415, down approximately 184 points. This follows Thursday's strong performance where NIFTY50 surged 576 points or 2.40% in its sixth consecutive winning session, with SENSEX gaining 2,009 points and marking the second-best daily gain in 2026 after April 8.
The weakness stems from a severe technology-led selloff on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq tumbled 3.09%, S&P 500 fell 1.66%, and Dow Jones futures plunged 1,221 points or 2.28% to 52,282 following Wednesday's 1,569-point rally. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, nearly ₹1.3 trillion in market capitalisation was erased within 30 minutes of US market opening. The selloff was triggered by concerns over tighter regulation of artificial intelligence infrastructure following Democratic gains in the US midterm elections. Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, noted that "the big rout of 5.6% in Nasdaq was triggered on concerns of big slowdown in data centre spending since the Democrats are opposed to massive data centre investment." Asian markets bore the brunt of the selloff, with Japan's Nikkei 225 plunging about 5.9% nearing bear-market territory, South Korea's Kospi falling more than 8.5% triggering a circuit breaker, and Taiwan's benchmark index declining 7.5%.
Despite global headwinds, IT stocks faced pressure with TCS, Infosys, and HCL Technologies among the top losers on Thursday. According to The Hindu BusinessLine, TCS rose 2.38% to ₹2,555, Infosys climbed 2.10% to ₹1,191.90, and HCL Technologies gained 1.99% to ₹1,459 during the previous session. However, Infosys ADRs jumped 4.6% while Wipro ended on a flat note, as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine. Among Nifty 50 gainers on Thursday, Mahindra & Mahindra advanced 1.96% to ₹3,188.90, while Bharti Airtel added 1.84% to ₹2,094.80. Financials and auto stocks led the previous session's rally with Capital Market and Financial Services indices rallying over 4% and Auto index gaining 4.14%, while Defence index was the notable laggard, losing 1.70%.
Foreign institutional investors have been net buyers for five consecutive sessions, with ₹14,975 crore in net equity purchases recorded on November 5 alone — the largest single-day inflow during the period. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, FIIs have bought equities for ₹35,781 crores in the last five trading days. In contrast, domestic institutional investors remained net sellers with outflows of ₹10,444 crore. Dr V K Vijayakumar noted that "despite selling and profit booking by DIIs, the market is likely to remain resilient since FII buying will continue in the changed global market construct." Hitesh Tailor from Choice Broking stated that "despite the sharp overnight global weakness and lower Gift Nifty indication, the domestic technical structure remains strongly bullish, supported by consecutive gains, major trendline breakouts and substantial FII inflows." Technical analysts suggest key support for NIFTY50 at 24,300–24,350 with resistance at 24,700–24,800.
Brent crude was approaching the $100-per-barrel mark, while WTI recovered toward $91 per barrel. Gold futures on MCX were trading at ₹1,43,970 per 10 grams, up 0.51%, while silver futures fell 0.44% to ₹1,86,901 per kg. Bank Nifty, which closed at 57,773.65 on Thursday, faces resistance at 58,000–58,290 with support at 57,250. The NIFTY's RSI stood at 74.69 in the previous session, indicating stretched bullish momentum. Vikram Subburaj from Giottus cautioned that "the divergence between gold and silver calls for caution," advising investors to "avoid chasing short-term price moves."
