Market opening: NIFTY50 opens above 26,000, SENSEX jumps 200 points as metal stocks rally; JSW Steel, Tata Steel top gainers

Snapping its five-day losing streak, the Indian stock market opened higher on Wednesday, December 31, as metal stocks rallied.

The broader market was trading in green in the early trade, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.60% and 0.52%, respectively.

All the sectoral gauges were in positive territory, with Nifty Metal leading the pack, gaining 1.34%, followed by Nifty Oil and Gas (0.74%), Nifty Consumer Durables (0.63%), Nifty PSU Bank (0.57%) and Nifty Realty (0.4%).

Shares of steel producers like Tata Steel, JSW Steel, SAIL and Jindal Steel were trading higher after the government on Tuesday imposed an 11%-12% three-year import tariff on some steel products, as the government aims to curb cheap shipments from China.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹3,844.02 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹6,159.81 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading lower on Wednesday, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng trading down 1.1%, Singapore's Straits Times declining 0.19%, and China's Shanghai Composite slipping 0.07%.

Markets in Japan and South Korea were shut on account of the New Year's Eve holiday.

On Wall Street, US stock markets ended lower on Tuesday, with major indices falling in a light-volume pre-holiday session, marking a subdued close to an otherwise volatile year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.14%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.24%.

As many as 2,721 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 1,864 advanced, 770 declined, and 87 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, 34 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 31 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 27 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 31 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 9.52 levels, falling 1.62%.

As many as 36 stocks advanced, while 14 declined in the opening session on the NIFTY50 index.

JSW Steel was the most contributing stock, soaring 4.17%, followed by Tata Steel (2.17%), Bharat Electronics (1.41%), Titan Company (0.98%) and Trent (0.85%).

TCS (-0.44%), Bajaj Finserv (-0.34%), Hindalco Industries (-0.31%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-0.3%), and Eternal (0.27%) were the top laggards on the 50-share index.