Blitz Bureau
Mumbai, April 28: Indian stock markets opened higher on Monday, driven by buying interest in PSU banks and financial services sectors, amid mixed global cues.
By 9:30 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 400.7 points, or 0.51%, higher at 79,613.28. The NSE Nifty gained 88.65 points, or 0.37%, to reach 24,128.00.
The Nifty Bank index climbed 347.85 points, or 0.64%, to 55,011.90. The Nifty Midcap 100 rose by 230.80 points (0.43%) to 53,801.00, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 slipped by 28.55 points (0.17%) to 16,518.65.
GIFT Nifty trends had earlier indicated a strong start, projecting a gap-up of around 110 points for the Nifty, after a volatile Friday session where Indian benchmarks fell over 0.5%.
Technical charts show the Nifty faced resistance near the 24,350 level before profit-taking set in, pulling it towards the key 200-period simple moving average (SMA) near 24,050. Despite this, the overall trend remains positive, analysts said.
Vaishali Parekh, Vice President-Technical Research at PL Capital Group, reiterated that the Nifty has crucial near-term support around 23,800. “If the 23,800 level holds, we can expect further upside in the coming days,” she noted. Resistance for the day is placed near 24,300.
Within the Sensex pack, M&M, Eternal, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, SBI, Hindustan Unilever, and L&T were among the top gainers. In contrast, HCL Tech, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Nestle India, ITC, and UltraTech Cement were trading lower.
Global markets offered mixed cues. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.05% to 40,113.50, the S&P 500 gained 0.74% to 5,525.21, and the Nasdaq advanced 1.26% to 17,382.94. Asian markets, excluding China, were largely in positive territory, with indices in Jakarta, Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Japan trading higher.
On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree for the eighth straight session, recording net inflows of Rs 2,952.33 crore on April 25. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also turned net buyers, with inflows of Rs 3,539.85 crore after three sessions of net selling.