Market Opening Bell: Indices open in green, NIFTY50 above 24,700 level, SENSEX rises 319 points; Sun Pharma top gainer

The Indian stock market on Wednesday, May 21, opened positive following its Asian peers and gains in the pharma sector.

In the opening session, the broader market remained under pressure, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices declining 0.09% and 0.18%, respectively.

Among sectors, Nifty Pharma took the lead, rising 1.45%, while Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.86%) led the losers’ pack.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹10,016.10 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹6,738.39 crore.

On the global front, snapping its three days of rally, the US market closed lower as investors were cautious around Trump’s policies and rising Middle East tensions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 114.83 points, or 0.27%, to 42,677.24, the S&P 500 fell 23.14 points, or 0.39%, to 5,940.46, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 72.75 points, or 0.38%, to 19,142.71.

The Asian stocks were mostly trading higher on Wednesday morning. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's KOSPI gained 0.50% and 0.98%, respectively. The Shanghai Composite was trading 0.38% higher at the 3,393.49 level.

Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei 225 was trading lower by 0.23% to 37,443.75, while Singapore's Straits Times slipped 0.36% to 3,868.44 levels.

As many as 2,368 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,070 stocks were trading in the green, 1,231 in the red and 67 shares remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of negative.

Meanwhile, 21 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while only 7 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 29 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 19 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 0.61% lower at 17.49 levels.

Sun Pharma was the most contributing stock, surging 2.34%. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (2.11%), Cipla (1.81%), Bharat Electronics (1.37%) and Apollo Hospitals (1.04%) were the other top gainers.

On the other side, Shriram Finance (-2.75%), Trent (-1.44%), IndusInd Bank (-1.43%), Eternal (-1.22%) and Hindalco Industries (-1.07%) were the most losing stocks on the index.