SENSEX rises 221 points, NIFTY50 at 24,790 as auto, metal stocks rally; JSW Steel, Tata Steel lead gains

The Indian equity benchmark indices opened higher on Monday, September 8, following gains in Asian markets, led by rallies in auto and metal stocks.

In the early session, the broader market was also seen trading higher, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 surging 0.24% and 0.11%, respectively.

Among sectors, except for Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.15%), all the other sectors were trading higher in the opening session. Nifty Metal (1.2%) led the gains, followed by Nifty Auto (1.19%) and Nifty PSU Bank (0.85%).

On Friday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹1,304.91 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,821.23 crore on a net basis, according to exchange data.

The foreign investors have pulled out ₹12,257 crore from Indian equities in the first week of September, weighed down by a stronger dollar, US tariff concerns, and persistent geopolitical tensions.

On the global front, indices in Asia were trading with gains on Monday following US payrolls data while investors assessed Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation announcement over the weekend and eyed key economic data in the region.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was seen 0.28% higher, while the Shanghai Composite was trading up by 0.17%. South Korea's KOSPI and Japan's Nikkei 225 also gained 0.19% and 1.41%, respectively.

Last week, on Wall Street, US stocks ended marginally lower on Friday as investors weighed economic worries against optimism over interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve after data showed US job growth weakened sharply in August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 220.43 points, or 0.48%, to end at 45,400.86; the S&P 500 fell 20.58 points, or 0.32%, to 6,481.50; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 7.31 points, or 0.03%, to 21,700.39.

As many as 2,636 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,708 were trading in the green, 833 were trading in the red, and 95 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market breadth was in favour of positive.

Meanwhile, 68 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 30 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 66 stocks also hit their lower circuits, while 32 stocks hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 0.78% higher at 10.86 levels.

JSW Steel was the most contributing stock, rising 2.77%, followed by Tata Steel (2.53%), Tata Motors (1.88%), Mahindra & Mahindra (1.31%) and Adani Enterprises (0.88%).

On the flip side, SBI Life Insurance (-1.42%), Asian Paints (-1.02%), Nestle India (0.89%), HDFC Life Insurance (-0.60%) and Trent (-0.43%) were the top losing stocks on the 50-share index.