The Indian stock market began the week on a steady note, with the Sensex holding marginally above the 84,000 mark on Monday, buoyed by positive global sentiment and selective sectoral gains.
At approximately 9:27 AM, the Sensex was up by 1.35 points at 84,057.55, while the Nifty rose 6.50 points or 0.03 per cent to trade at 25,644.30.
Early trading witnessed buying interest in the PSU banking and IT sectors, helping offset minor losses in other heavyweights.
The Nifty Bank index edged higher by 15.15 points or 0.03 per cent to 57,459.05.
The Nifty Midcap 100 also advanced, gaining 220.90 points or 0.37 per cent to reach 59,606.05, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 climbed 153.35 points or 0.81 per cent to trade at 19,130.15.
Global factors support market sentiment
Market experts attributed the cautious optimism to several favourable global developments.
These include the easing of geopolitical tensions in West Asia, the sharp retreat of Brent crude oil prices to $67 per barrel, and the potential for improved trade relations between the United States, China, and India.
“Large-cap stocks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro have attracted institutional buying, significantly contributing to the recent rally in Indian equities,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
In the Sensex pack, top gainers included Trent, State Bank of India (SBI), Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, and Hindustan Unilever.
On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, NTPC, and UltraTech Cement were among the key losers in early trade.
FII inflows & cautious optimism
The sustained weakness in the US dollar index has continued to attract foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows.
On 27 June, FIIs were net buyers, investing ₹1,397.02 crore in Indian equities. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs), however, were net sellers, offloading ₹588.93 crore worth of shares.
Experts advised maintaining existing investments in this ongoing bull market, though they cautioned against making aggressive fresh entries at elevated valuations.
Most Asian indices, including China, Bangkok, Japan, Seoul, and Jakarta, traded in positive territory, while only Hong Kong showed a decline.
On Friday, US markets also closed on a strong note, with the Dow Jones gaining 432.43 points to close at 43,819.27.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also ended higher by 0.52 per cent each.
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