Indices open flat, SENSEX up 100 points, NIFTY50 at 25,082 tracking Asian peers; Hindalco, BEL top gainers

The Indian stock market opened flat up on Thursday, September 25, mirroring the cautious sentiment in Asian markets amid continued foreign fund outflows.

The broader market also opened with gains, with both Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.33% and 0.44%, respectively.

Among sectors, except for Nifty Auto (-0.38%) and Nifty PSU Bank (-0.03%), all the other gauges were trading in green. Nifty Metal (0.43%), Nifty FMCG (0.36%) and Nifty Pharma (0.31%) were the top gainers.

According to exchange data, on Wednesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹2,425.75 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,211.68 crore on a net basis.

Globally, most of the Asian markets were trading in a narrow range on Thursday as they were looking for fresh cues for an up move after the AI-fuelled rally on Wall Street cooled overnight.

Japan's Nikkei was up 0.2%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's KOSPI were trading on a flat note, up 0.03% and 0.02%, respectively. China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.12%, while Taiwan Weighted was up 0.2%.

US stocks ended lower on Wednesday after the AI-fuelled rally on Wall Street took pause. The S&P 500 index fell 0.3%, Nasdaq declined 0.34%, while Dow Jones dropped 0.4%.

As many as 2,616 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,162 advanced, 1,352 declined, and 83 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth was favourable towards declines.

Meanwhile, 38 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 30 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 43 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 23 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 10.56 levels, up 0.33%.

Hindalco Industries was the most contributing stock, rising 1.46%, followed by Bharat Electronics (1.23%), Nestle India (0.87%), ONGC (0.71%) and Adani Enterprises (0.64%).

On the flip side, Tata Motors (-1.78%), Asian Paints (-1.06%), Titan (-0.99%), Maruti Suzuki (-0.72%) and Eternal (-0.63%) were the biggest laggards on the 50-share index.