Market Opening Bell: Indices open positive, NIFTY50 trades above 24,400 mark, SENSEX gains 350 pts; Kotak Mahindra Bank tanks over 5%

The Indian stock market began the week on a positive note, with both the equity indices rising on Monday, May 5, as broader indices gained with continued interest from foreign investors. However, the market investors will keep an eye on further developments on the geopolitical updates between India and Pakistan.

At 9:23 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX surged 349.41 points, or 0.43%, at the 80,851.40 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 24,457.65 level, rising 110.95 points, or 0.46%.

Both the midcap and smallcap indices were trading in positive zones, with NIFTY Midcap advancing the most.

The market's breadth also remained in favour of bulls in the early session, as 1,531 stocks advanced out of 2,466 traded.

Among sectors, Nifty Oil and Gas gained the most, rising 1.16%, followed by Nifty FMCG (0.98%) and Nifty IT (0.94%). On the other hand, Nifty PSU Bank, Private Bank and Realty were the top losers, falling 0.45%, 0.76% and 0.64%, respectively.

Meanwhile, according to the data with the depositories, the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) made a net investment of ₹4,223 crore in equities in the entire April.

The FPIs have bought equities worth ₹2,769 crore on Friday, and the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also supported it with ₹3,290 crore worth of buying in the Indian equities.

On the global front, the Asian markets opened higher on Monday morning across the board as Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rallied over 1.2% on Monday. The rally was largely driven by the gains in the US markets.

The US markets last week closed positive, backed by strong economic data and potential easing of trade tensions between the US and China. The S&P 500 reached its ninth consecutive session of gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 564.47 points, or 1.39%, to 41,317.43, the S&P 500 gained 82.54 points, or 1.47%, to 5,686.68, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 266.99 points, or 1.51%, to 17,977.73.

As many as 2,531 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,710 stocks were trading in the green, only 750 in the red and 71 shares remained unchanged.

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

Meanwhile, only 18 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while 22 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 37 stocks hit their lower circuits while 42 hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 1.34% higher at 18.50 levels.

Adani Ports was the most contributing stock, jumping 3.39% on the NIFTY50 index, followed by Trent (2.85%), Shriram Finance (2.71%), Eternal (2.14%) and Bajaj Finserv (2.02%).

Kotak Mahindra Bank was the biggest losing stock on the 50-share index, tanking as much as 5.32%. State Bank of India, ONGC, JSW Steel, and Dr. Reddy’s were the other losing stocks, declining as much as 1.5%.

At 9:57 AM, shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank were trading at ₹2,061 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, declining 5.68%.

The stock was trading 13.08% higher at ₹1,157.7 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 9:34 am.

Shares of SBI were trading at ₹787.15 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, declining 1.61%.