Indian Stock Market Opens Flat; Sensex Holds Above 84,000

Mumbai — The Indian stock market opened flat on Monday, despite positive global cues, with early gains seen in PSU banks and the IT sector.

As of 9:27 a.m., the Sensex was marginally up by 1.35 points at 84,057.55, while the Nifty rose 6.50 points, or 0.03%, to trade at 25,644.30.

According to market experts, easing geopolitical tensions in West Asia, a sharp pullback in Brent crude prices to $67 per barrel, and encouraging news on possible trade deals between the US-China and US-India are contributing to the positive sentiment in equity markets.

“Major drivers of India’s recent market rally include large-cap stocks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, and L&T, which have attracted significant institutional buying,” said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

In early trade, the Nifty Bank index was up 15.15 points, or 0.03%, at 57,459.05. The Nifty Midcap 100 climbed 220.90 points, or 0.37%, to 59,606.05, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 gained 153.35 points, or 0.81%, to trade at 19,130.15.

Among Sensex constituents, the top losers included M&M, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, NTPC, and UltraTech Cement. On the other hand, Trent, SBI, L&T, Eicher Motors, Axis Bank, and Hindustan Unilever emerged as the top gainers.

Market experts noted that the continued weakness in the dollar index is encouraging foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows, while sustained retail participation is also supporting domestic markets. However, they cautioned that while staying invested in the current bull market makes sense, making fresh investments at high valuations carries risks.

On June 27, FIIs were net buyers, purchasing equities worth ?1,397.02 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers, offloading ?588.93 crore worth of shares.

In Asian markets, indices in China, Bangkok, Japan, Seoul, and Jakarta were trading in the green, with only Hong Kong showing a decline.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday’s session at 43,819.27, up 432.43 points, or 1%. The S&P 500 gained 32.05 points, or 0.52%, to end at 6,173.07, while the Nasdaq added 105.55 points, or 0.52%, closing at 20,273.46.

With inputs from IANS