Indices fall at opening bell, recover later; SENSEX up 130 pts, NIFTY50 maintains 22,500 level

Snapping its two days of recovery in the early trades, the equity benchmark indices on Friday, March 7, opened negative following the global cues. It rebounded after an hour, however.

At 10.38 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX was trading at 74,478.90 levels, gaining 138.81 points or 0.19%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index was trading at 22,597.60, rising 52.90 points, or 0.23%.

During the opening bell, the S&P BSE SENSEX was trading at 74,215.66 levels, down 124.43 points or 0.17%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index was trading at 22,502.25, falling 42.45 points, or 0.19%.

As many as 20 stocks on the NIFTY50 index were trading in the green and 30 in the red.

The top five biggest laggards on the index were Shriram Finance, Infosys, NTPC, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra, declining as much as 1.37% on the 50-share index.

Meanwhile, the broader market traded mixed during the morning trade, with Nifty Midcap 100 losing 0.05% and Nifty Smallcap rising 0.51%. However, it recovered little later.

Stocks fell even though President Trump on Thursday offered a one-month reprieve from his 25% tariffs on many goods imported from Mexico and Canada. But Trump is still pressing ahead with other tariffs scheduled to take effect April 2.

Globally, the Asian markets traded in deep red on Friday morning, taking cues from selling in the US tech stocks. The Japanese Nikkei index fell the most, by 600 points, followed by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which fell 114 points.

The major benchmark indices in the US closed with deep cuts on Thursday as concerns grew over the impact of Trump’s trade tariffs, which could impact negatively on the already ailing US economy.

The S&P 500 tumbled 1.8% to resume its slide after a mini-recovery from the prior day clawed back some of its sharp drop over recent weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 427 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite sank 2.6% to finish more than 10% below its record set in December.

Crude oil prices continued to hover around six-month lows as concerns about the trade war weighed on them. WTI crude oil prices hovered around $66.4 per barrel, and Brent crude oil prices traded below $70 per barrel.

As many as 2,524 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,770 stocks were trading in the green, 683 in the red and only 71 shares remained unchanged.

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

As many as 10 stocks hit their one-year high in the early trade, while only 23 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 26 stocks hit their lower circuits while 107 hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading around 0.65% higher at 13.82 levels.

The broader market extended its gain during the opening bell with Nifty Midcap 100 trading 0.11% higher at 49,403.25 levels and Nifty Smallcap 100 at 15,507.10 levels, rising 0.69%.

The stock rose as much as 6.64% to ₹978 apiece on the NSE. At 9:43 am, it was up 5.64% to ₹968.8 per unit.