Market opening: SENSEX up 155 points, NIFTY50 at 25,096 as metal, pharma stocks rally; Tata Steel, Dr.Reddy’s top gainers

The Indian stock market resumed its upward momentum on Thursday, October 9, after a day’s pause, supported by positive global cues and gains in pharma and metal stocks.

Meanwhile, investors remained cautious as the July–September quarterly earnings season kicked off on Thursday, with IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) set to open the Q2 results season.

The broader market also opened with gains, with both Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.33% and 0.31%, respectively.

Among sectors, except for Nifty FMCG (-0.19%) and Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.03%), all the other gauges were trading in green. Nifty Pharma (1.50%), Nifty Realty (1.34%) and Nifty Metal (1.12%) were the top gainers in the opening session.

According to exchange data, on Wednesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth ₹81.28 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹329.96 crore on a net basis.

Globally, most Asian indices traded higher as investors ramped up bets on AI-linked stocks, while gold hovered above $4,000 and the dollar held firm near recent highs.

Japan's Nikkei was up 1.3%, China's Shanghai Composite rose 1.24%, while Taiwan Weighted surged 1.26%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was trading flat, down by 0.05%.

On Wall Street, the technology shares lifted US stocks to a higher close on Wednesday as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes for signals on the interest rate outlook.

Tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.12%, S&P 500 advanced 0.58%, and Dow Jones ended unchanged.

As many as 2,680 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,461 advanced, 1,142 declined, and 77 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, 65 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 40 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 57 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 25 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading at 10.41 levels, up 0.92%.

Tata Steel was the biggest contributor, rising 2.47%, followed by Dr Reddy’s (1.66%), Sun Pharma (1.35%), Eternal (1.26%) and HCL Technologies (1.23%).

On the flip side, Tata Motors (-0.86%), Power Grid (-0.72%), Eicher Motors (-0.70%), HDFC Life Insurance (-0.63%) and Bajaj Finance (-0.62%) were the biggest laggards on the 50-share index.