Equity benchmarks opened on a subdued note on Friday as trading resumed after the Christmas holiday, with the Sensex falling 220.94 points or 0.26 per cent to ₹85,187.76 and the Nifty declining 60.55 points or 0.23 per cent to 26,081.55 in early trade. The Sensex had closed at ₹85,408.70 on Wednesday and opened today at ₹85,225.28, while the Nifty, which had a previous close of 26,142.10, opened at 26,081.55.
Market participants attributed the cautious start to mixed global cues, thin holiday volumes and continued foreign institutional investor selling pressure. “With only four more trading days left for the year 2025, what looked like a Santa rally, appears to be running out of steam,” said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited. “In the absence of fresh triggers like a US-India trade deal, the market is likely to consolidate around the present levels.”
The negative sentiment was compounded by persistent FII outflows, with foreign investors selling equities worth ₹1,721 crore on Wednesday. Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, noted that “sentiment remains fragile amid low holiday volumes, FII selling of ₹1,721 crore and lack of strong domestic cues, keeping markets range-bound and volatile.”
Among sectoral movements, defence and mining stocks showed resilience in early trade. Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) emerged as the top gainer on the Nifty50, rising 1.43 per cent to ₹405.70, followed by Coal India which gained 0.87 per cent to ₹405.85. Adani Enterprises added 0.65 per cent to ₹2,237.20, while Cipla and Titan Company advanced 0.55 per cent and 0.50 per cent to ₹1,504.60 and ₹3,928.90 respectively.
However, pharmaceutical and financial stocks witnessed selling pressure. Sun Pharma led the decliners, falling 1.16 per cent to ₹1,716.80, followed by Shriram Finance which dropped 1.07 per cent to ₹963.25. Tata Steel declined 0.92 per cent to ₹168.50, while Eicher Motors and Bajaj Finance lost 0.79 per cent and 0.75 per cent to ₹282.60 and ₹1,004.10 respectively.
Technical analysts advised caution with level-based trading strategies. Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research at Kotak Securities, said, “We believe that the intraday market texture is non-directional; hence, level-based trading would be the ideal strategy for day traders. On the higher side, 26,250/85750 remains the crucial resistance zone for the bulls, whereas 26,100/85300 would be the immediate support area.”
Aakash Shah, Technical Research Analyst at Choice Equity Broking, highlighted that “India VIX continues to trade near multi-month lows, reflecting very low volatility and suggesting limited intraday swings. This environment favors range-bound trading and buy-on-dips strategies, with strict stop-losses advised amid thin holiday volumes and year-end positioning.”
Despite near-term headwinds, investment strategists remained constructive on the medium-term outlook. “The sustained buying by the cash rich DIIs will support the market and prevent a sharp pull back,” Vijayakumar added. “The ideal investment strategy for investors now is to remain invested in high quality large caps and slowly accumulate them on declines. A rally in the market in the early stage of 2026 is on the cards.”
Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, noted that global factors remained supportive. “US equities closed at record highs amid holiday-thinned volumes and growing expectations of further interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve, while a buoyant tone across Asian markets is providing a supportive global backdrop,” he said.
In commodities, precious metals continued their rally with gold and silver approaching record highs on safe-haven demand. Crude oil prices edged higher toward $58.5 per barrel on geopolitical tensions.
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Published on December 26, 2025
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