Market Opening Bell: Indices open in the green; NIFTY50 regains 22,500 level, SENSEX rises over 400 pts; IndusInd Bank top gainer

The equity benchmark indices on Monday, March 17, opened the week on a positive note following the global cues.

At 10:06 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX was up 446.87 points, or 0.61%, at the 74,275.78 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 22,536.30 level, rising 139.10 points, or 0.62%.

The market breadth was largely in favour of positive, as 1,584 stocks advanced on the National Stock Exchange, out of 2,403 stocks traded during the opening session.

As many as 39 stocks on the NIFTY50 index were trading in the green and 11 in the red.

The broader market also opened higher on Monday.

Market investors will be eyeing various global events to take further positions. The US Fed interest rate decision, tariff-related developments and foreign investors activity will further guide the equity market this week.

Last week, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued to pull back money from the Indian equity market, withdrawing a little over ₹30,000 crore in the first fortnight of the month. According to exchange data, FPIs have offloaded shares worth ₹30,015 crore till March 13.

The total outflow by FPIs has reached ₹1.42 lakh crore in 2025 so far, data with the depositories showed.

IndusInd Bank, SBI Life, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and Cipla were the most contributing stocks, rising as much as 2.9% during the early session.

Globally, among the Asian markets, the Shanghai Composite Index was trading 0.28% higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose over 0.8%. Japan's Nikkei index gained 1.24% on Monday.

The US stocks showed a sharp recovery on Friday amid escalating trade war and recession fears.

A broad rally boosted all three major US stock indexes to solid gains, with recently battered tech-related megacaps enjoying a comeback.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 674.62 points, or 1.65%, to 41,488.19. The S&P 500 advanced 117.42 points, or 2.13%, to 5,638.94, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 451.07 points, or 2.61%, to 17,754.09.

As many as 2,604 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 1,677 stocks were trading in the green, 862 in the red and 65 shares remained unchanged.

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

As many as 22 stocks hit their one-year high in the early trade, while only 144 stocks touched their 52-week low.

Further, 45 stocks hit their lower circuits while 57 hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 3.39% higher at 13.60 levels.

The broader market opened positive on Monday morning, with Nifty Midcap 100 trading 1% higher at 48,697.65 levels, and Nifty Smallcap 100 was at 15,049.90 levels, advancing 1.02%.

The lender's shares took a heavy beating last week after the private sector lender disclosed an accounting discrepancy that is estimated to have affected 2.35% of its net worth.