Indian stocks back in green after three straight day losses

New Delhi: After a selling spree for the third straight session, Indian stock indices have opened Friday’s trade marginally in the green.
Sensex was just 0.1 per cent higher at 66,297.35 points, while Nifty was 0.04 per cent higher at 19,750.45 points. So far this week, they have however fallen over 2 per cent on cumulative basis.
On Thursday, the indices slumped sharply after the US central bank, while keeping its interest rate steady in the September meeting, hinted that it may again hike rates going ahead if need be, in its fight against inflation.
"The Fed’s hawkish pause message has created a global risk-averse sentiment in global equity markets,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Rising global crude oil prices and subsequent strengthening of the US dollar also weighed on the financial markets.
Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said, “Market fell by 2.2 per cent in the last three days amid profit booking at higher levels. Uncertain global cues and persistent selling by FIIs are likely to keep markets under pressure in the near term. It would be better to prefer defensive sectors for some time until the market stabilizes.”
On Monday and Wednesday, Indian stock indices traded in the red, with the benchmarks largely witnessing profit booking. Investors had taken some money off the table after the indices hit their fresh highs last week. Markets were closed Tuesday on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi.