Market Opening Bell: SENSEX, NIFTY50 volatile in early trade; Zomato shares fall 2.5%, IndusInd Bank top gainer

The Indian equity benchmark indices on Wednesday, March 26, opened flat despite positive global market cues and foreign investors buying in. Both the indices gained for the seventh consecutive session.

During the opening bell, the S&P BSE SENSEX was up 109.21 points, or 0.14%, at the 78,126.40 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 23,718.75 level, rising 50.10 points, or 0.21%.

However, the indices gave up gains and turned negative later. SENSEX fell 105.25 points, or 0.13%, to 77,911.94 while NIFTY50 slipped 7.05 points, or 0.03%, to 23,661.60.

During the opening bell, the market breadth remained favourable, as 1,442 stocks advanced on the National Stock Exchange out of 2,351 stocks traded.

IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid and Hindalco were the most contributing scrips on NSE, rising as much as 2.93% during the early trades.

Meanwhile, the broader market rebounded on Wednesday after closing lower in the last trading session.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers for the fourth consecutive session as they purchased equities worth ₹5,371.57 crore on a net basis on Tuesday, according to exchange data. The domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities worth ₹2,767 crore.

Globally, the US markets closed positive for the third consecutive day as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 gained modestly, while the NASDAQ jumped nearly half a percentage point.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.16% to end the session at 5,776.65 points, and the Nasdaq gained 0.46% to 18,271.86 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.01% to 42,587.50 points.

Asian markets broadly opened in the green following the US markets, with Hong Kong and Korean indices leading with gains of up to 0.8%, followed by Japanese and Chinese indices at 0.4%. The rally in Asian markets is largely driven by positive overnight cues from Wall Street gains.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.40% to 37,941.54, while the Kospi in South Korea rose 0.75% to 2,635.45.

As many as 2,521 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,399 stocks were trading in the green, 1,042 in the red and 80 shares remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, only 10 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 69 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 35 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 45 hit their lower circuits.

The volatility index India VIX was trading 1.59% higher at 13.85 levels.

The broader market traded positively during the opening bell, with Nifty Midcap 100 advancing 0.66% to 52,310.95 levels and Nifty Smallcap 100 at 16,159.35 levels, rising 0.31%.

At 9:50 AM, Zomato share was trading 2.63% lower at ₹204.29 apiece on the NSE.