Market opening: Indices jump over 3%, SENSEX soars 2,625 pts, NIFTY50 above 23,800 on easing global cues; IndiGo top gainer

The Indian stock market opened with strong gains on Wednesday, April 8, as easing geopolitical tensions, following a US-Iran ceasefire and a sharp decline in oil prices, lifted investor sentiment.

President Donald Trump has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, less than two hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face devastating attacks on its civilian infrastructure, in which he had threatened 'a whole civilisation will die'.

At 9:20 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX soared 2,635.28 points, or 3.53%, to the 77,251.86 level, while the NSE's NIFTY50 was at the 23,899.75 level, gaining 776.10 points, or 3.36%.

The broader market also opened in green as both the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 surged 3.45% and 3.3%, respectively.

All the sectoral indices were trading with gains with Nifty Realty taking the lead, rising 5.65%. Among other top sectoral winners were Nifty Auto (5.06%), Nifty PSU Bank (4.43%), Nifty Private Bank (4.14%) and Nifty Consumer Durables (3.99%).

The realty and banking stocks are also rallying as the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is widely expected to keep the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 5.25% amid heightened global uncertainties.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹8,692.11 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹7,979.50 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, equity markets across Asia were trading sharply higher on Wednesday after Trump said Iran had ‌presented a ⁠10-point proposal that was a "workable basis" for negotiations, and he expected an agreement to be "finalised and consummated" during the two-week window.

Japan's Nikkei jumped 5%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index gained 2.5%, China's Shanghai Composite index surged 1.7%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 2.6% and South Korea's KOSPI index rose 6%.

Overnight, US stocks ended on a flat note ahead of the ceasefire announcement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.18%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.08% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended 0.1% higher.

As many as 2,895 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 2,711 advanced, 138 declined, and 46 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth is favourable towards advances.

Meanwhile, 33 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 7 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 141 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 9 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 20.22 levels, declining 18.12%.

As many as 46 stocks advanced, while 4 were trading lower in the opening session on the NIFTY50 index.

IndiGo operator InterGlobe Aviation was the most contributing stock, soaring 9.97%, followed by Larsen & Toubro (7.32%), Bajaj Finance (7.17%), Adani Ports (6.92%) and Shriram Finance (6.87%).

On the other hand, ONGC (-2.67%), Coal India (-2.33%), Tech Mahindra (-1.06%), and Wipro (-0.4%) were the only laggards.