Market Opening Bell: Indices surge over 1%; NIFTY50 trades above 22,700 mark, SENSEX up 760 pts

Following the positive global cues, the Indian stock market on Tuesday, March 18, started with gains supported by an advancing broader market.

At 10:07 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX was surged 769.15 points, or 1.04%, at the 74,939.10 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 22,735.80 level, rising 227.05 points, or 1.01%.

The market breadth was largely in favour of bulls, as 2,089 stocks advanced on the NSE out of 2,533 stocks traded during the opening session.

As many as 40 stocks on the NIFTY50 index were trading in the green while only 10 were in the red.

ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Shriram Finance, Axis Bank, and Britannia were the most contributing stocks on the 50-share index, gaining as much as 2.48%.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹4,488.45 crore on a net basis on Monday, according to exchange data.

Globally, the US markets climbed nearly 4% from the recent lows, as softer-than-expected inflation data and higher sales data gave some respite to recession fears. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed 0.85% and 0.64% higher, and the NASDAQ closed 0.31% higher on Wednesday.

Taking cues from buoyant Wall Street gains, the Japanese, Chinese and Hong Kong indices opened with gains of up to 2% on Tuesday morning. The Japanese indices jumped 1.5% ahead of the monetary policy decision this week, which is expected to maintain the status quo.

As many as 2,533 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 2,089 stocks were trading in the green, only 395 in the red and 49 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, only 22 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 120 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 60 stocks hit their lower circuits while 42 hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 1.13% higher at 13.57 levels.

The broader market extended their gains during the opening bell, with Nifty Midcap 100 trading 0.90% higher at 48,899.40 levels and Nifty Smallcap 100 at 15,158.85 levels, rising 1.27%.

During early trades on Tuesday, shares of the company zoomed as much as 9.7% to ₹47 apiece on the NSE.

The stock fell 1% to ₹1,852.55 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 9:22 am.

The company's proposed demerger will create four independent, natural resource-focused entities with management structures, capital frameworks, and strategic priorities.