Nifty, Sensex open in red; pharma shares gain, banking & financial stocks decline

The Indian market started Monday in the red amid negative global cues. Pharms shares shone, while banking and financial stocks declined the most in the opening trade on Monday.  

Domestic equity benchmarks Nifty50 and the S&P BSE Sensex opened at 16,937.75 and 56,948.33 respectively.  

Cipla, Divis Labs, Sun Pharma, PowerGrid, NTPC were the top gainers on the two indices, while IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank were the laggards 

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In the pre-open, the Sensex gained 175.98 points to start at 56,948.33 as only six shares advanced, one remained neutral and others traded in the negative. 

Earlier, SGX Nifty Futures traded in the red as the index was trading 52 points lower to 16,945, hinting at negative opening for the Indian markets. 

Meanwhile on Monday morning, the Asian markets were trading flat to negative as Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 0.24%, while Shanghai Composite was trading negative with 0.027% loss around 7.15 am. 

Earlier, the US markets ended in the green on Thursday as all three major indices closed higher in a week shortened by Christmas holiday. Dow Jones gained 196.67 (0.55%) to close 35,950.56, Nasdaq Composite settled at 15,653.37 after adding 131.48 (0.85%) and S&P 500 closed 29.23 (0.62%) to 4,725.79.