Sensex, Nifty Surge at Open: Pharma & Metal Stocks Shine

The Indian equity benchmarks opened on a high Thursday morning, driven by robust performances in pharmaceutical and metal sectors. By 9:20 AM, Sensex was up 354 points (0.48%) at 74,963, and Nifty advanced 146 points (0.66%) to 23,554, reflecting optimism across the board. Sectoral leaders included Nifty Pharma, Healthcare, and Metal indices, which topped the gainers' chart. A sea of green swept through Nifty Energy, Defence, PSE, Commodities, Infra, PSU Bank, and Oil & Gas indices, underscoring widespread positivity. Market participation was enthusiastic, with large-caps, mid-caps, and small-caps all advancing. Nifty Midcap 100 jumped 395 points (0.66%) to 60,560, while Nifty Smallcap 100 added 89 points (0.50%) to reach 18,083. Sensex constituents like Adani Ports, Trent, Asian Paints, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel (appearing twice in gains), ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, ITC, L&T, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, M&M, SBI, HDFC Bank, BEL, Bajaj Finance, HUL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Maruti Suzuki led the charge upwards. IT names HCL Tech, Infosys, TCS, and Tech Mahindra were the outliers, trading lower. Internationally, Asian peers mostly mirrored the upbeat sentiment, with gains in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Seoul; Shanghai was the exception in red. US markets closed mixed on Wednesday: Dow down 0.14%, Nasdaq up 1.20%. FIIs persisted with selling, net offloading Rs 4,703.15 crore in equities yesterday, but DIIs stepped in strongly with Rs 5,869.05 crore purchases, providing crucial support. Oil markets added fuel to the fire, with WTI crude at $101/barrel (up 0.46%) and Brent at $106/ounce (up 0.37%). Traders are watching if this opening strength holds through the day, potentially setting a positive tone for the week.