Market Opening Bell: NIFTY50 reclaims 23,000 level, SENSEX jumps 400 points amid mixed global cues; IT stocks advance

The Indian stock market on Thursday, March 20, opened positive for the fourth consecutive day as the IT and bank sectors rallied amid mixed global cues.

NIFTY50 reclaimed the 23,000 mark for the first time in a month. Rallying in the broader market continued with small-cap stocks surging over 1.2% during the morning session.

At 9:20 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX was up 402.15 points, or 0.53%, at the 75,851.20 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 23,018.45 level, rising 110.85 points, or 0.48%.

The market breadth was largely in favour of positives during the early trades, as 2,114 stocks advanced on the NSE out of 2,380 stocks traded.

As many as 41 stocks on the NIFTY50 index were trading in the green and only 8 in the red.

Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Eicher Motors were the most contributing scripts on the 50-share index, gaining as much as 2.9%.

After taking a buyer’s position for a day, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers on Wednesday and sold equities worth ₹1,096.50 crore on a net basis, according to exchange data.

Globally, Asian markets opened mixed on Thursday morning despite positive global market cues from the Wall Street gains overnight. Chinese equities declined sharply just after the open as its central bank held their LPR (lending prime rate) steady at record low levels, last changed in October 2024.

The Shanghai Composite Index last traded 0.46% lower, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index sank 1.5%. Elsewhere, Japan markets were closed for a holiday on Wednesday, but Nikkei futures rose 0.2%. Australian shares jumped 1%.

In response to the Federal Reserve’s unchanged policy stance and indicating two rate cuts further in 2025, the US markets rallied over 1% across the board.

The Dow Jones jumped 384 points, the S&P 500 jumped 1.08%, and NASDAQ jumped 1.3%, led by a rally in tech stocks.

Shares of big-tech companies like Nvidia, Broadcom, and Alphabet rallied in the range of 2% to 3.4% on Wednesday. Shares of Tesla jumped 4.7% after securing $1 billion in funding.

As many as 2,516 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 2,212 stocks were trading in the green, 255 in the red and 49 shares remained unchanged.

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

As many as 22 stocks hit their one-year high in the early trade, while only 24 stocks touched their 52-week low.

Further, 110 stocks hit their upper circuits while only 11 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 1.37% lower at 13.12 levels.

The broader market continued with its rally during the opening bell as Nifty Midcap 100 traded 0.68% higher at 51,164.75 and Nifty Smallcap 100 was at 15,896.15 levels, rising 0.94%.

All the 10 constituents of the NIFTY IT index were trading in the green. The NIFTY IT index was trading 1% higher at 36,595.90 levels.

The stock climbed 3% to ₹1,460 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 9:20 am.

The resignation is effective March 19.

At 9:49 AM, shares of the company were trading at ₹1,022, rising 7.14% on the National Stock Exchange.