Sensex Opening Bell: Stock market gains; Sensex rises 195 points, Nifty crosses 25400

New Delhi| Equity benchmark indices rose in early trade on Monday amid foreign fund inflows and a rise in US markets as Nifty hit a new all-time high. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 180.92 points to 83,071.86 in early trade. NSE Nifty climbed 55.1 points to 25,411.60. Further down the road the NSE benchmark climbed 89.2 points to a new record level of 25,445.70.

Shares of NTPC, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Asian Paints rose as much as 1 per cent in shares of bluechip companies. At the same time HUL shares fell by up to 2%. Talking sector wise, only the shares of FMCG sector showed weakness. It recorded a drop of up to 0.76%. On the other hand, Nifty Metal jumped up to 1% due to buying in PSU Bank shares. Shares of Adani Power and Adani Green gained four per cent each after receiving an order from DISCOM to supply 6600 MW of hybrid solar and thermal power in Maharashtra.

According to Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, the movement of equity markets across the world depends on the Fed’s decisions on interest rates on Wednesday. For the first time in four years, the Fed may decide to cut interest rates. It will now be important to see whether this reduction amounts to 25 basis points or 50 basis points.

Among the 30 Sensex companies, NTPC, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro and Bajaj Finance were the biggest gainers. Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, ICICI Bank and Tata Consultancy Services lagged behind. In Asian markets, there was a decline in Shanghai and Hong Kong. US markets closed in a positive range on Friday.

On Friday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 2,364.82 crore, according to exchange data. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also bought shares worth Rs 2,532.18 crore. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading up 0.07 percent at $71.66 a barrel. On Friday, the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex fell 71.77 points, or 0.09 per cent, to close at 82,890.94 points. Whereas NSE’s Nifty fell by 32.40 points or 0.13 percent and closed at 25,356.50 points.