Opening Bell: Nifty above 15,900, Sensex adds around 700 points; IT, Metal top gainers

Taking cues from Asian and global markets, the Indian equity benchmarks extended gains for the third day. The Indian market opened with more than one percent gain in the morning trade. The broader Nifty 50 gained 1.3% to open around 15,900 and the Sensex added over 500 points to start above 53,400.  

Following the benchmarks indices, the Nifty midcap and small cap rose by 1.1% and 1.3% respectively.  

On the sectoral front, all Nifty indices sat comfortably in the green, with IT and Metal gaining the most.  

"The jury is still out on whether this is a bear market or a corrective phase in a long-term bull market. After falling into bear market territory, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have smartly bounced back, and this is getting reflected in other markets too," said K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. 

The 3% bounce back in S&P last Friday indicates that pullbacks can be sharp and the consequent short-covering can surprise on the upside, said the expert.  
H said a significant development last week was the sharp 4.3% cut in the Bloomberg commodity index.  

"If this trend sustains, the inflation expectations will come down, enabling central banks to go a bit slow on tightening, and achieving a soft landing for the US economy. The near-term fall in commodity prices is beneficial for commodity users like autos whose prospects are looking up," added the expert.  

In the pre-open, the Sensex gained over 700 points as all stocks traded in the green on the 30-share index around 9.10 am on Monday.  

Earlier, the cues from the global markets were positive on Monday morning. SGX Nifty Futures rose 180 points in the early trade on the Singaporean exchange, while Japanese Nikkei 225 gained over 1.1%, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange traded higher by 1.9% and Chinese Shanghai Composite gained more than half per cent in the morning trade.  

Earlier, aided by tech stocks, the US markets ended in the green on Friday. US benchmark indices Dow Jones gained 2.6%, Nasdaq added 3.34 % and S&P 500 rose 3.06% on Thursday.