Market Opening Bell: SENSEX hits 80,000 mark, NIFTY50 gains 145 pts amid global cues; HCL Tech top gainer

The Indian stock market on Wednesday, April 23, opened higher amid positive global cues, and investors were also confident about the corporate earnings. Foreign investors buying Indian equities also boosted the sentiment.

At 9:20 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX was trading 517.96 points, or 0.60%, higher at the 80,113.55 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 24,312.85 level, advancing 145.60 points, or 0.60%.

The broader market also opened higher, with both midcap and smallcap gauges trading above 0.75%.

Except for Nifty PSU Bank (-0.03%), all the other sectoral indices opened with gains on Wednesday. The Nifty IT index was the top gainer among sectors, soaring 3.32% during the opening session.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,290.43 crore on a net basis on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

In the early trades, the rupee declined 11 paise to 85.30 against US dollar.

Globally, the US markets closed higher on better earnings expectations and easing of trade tensions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1,016.57 points, or 2.66%, to 39,186.98, the S&P 500 jumped 129.56 points, or 2.51%, to 5,287.76 and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 429.52 points, or 2.71%, to 16,300.42.

The market investors in the US were also relieved after President Donald Trump said that he has no plans to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The sentiment was further supported as Trump also hinted at easing trade negotiations with China.

Tracking the gains on Wall Street, the Asian markets were mostly positive.  Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.7% in morning trading to 34,797.22. South Korea's Kospi gained 1.2% to the 2,515.19 level.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.7% to 21,927.92, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, rising 0.04% at the 3,301.01 level.

As many as 2,471 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which only 1,325 stocks were trading in the green, 1,078 in the red and 68 shares remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth favoured positives.

As many as 37 stocks hit their one-year high in the early trade, while only 3 stocks touched their 52-week low.

Further, 64 stocks hit their upper circuits while only 9 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 1.28% higher at 15.23 levels.

HCL Technologies was the top gaining stock on the NIFTY50 index as the IT firm reported strong March quarter earnings. The stock jumped 7.12%.

Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Jio Financial Services and Mahindra and Mahindra were the other top gainers on the index, surging as much as 4.26%.

On the other hand, SBI Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance and Grasim were the top losers on the 50-share index, falling as much as 0.56%.