Opening Bell: Nifty near 16,300, Sensex adds over 100 points; metal shines, pharma declines

Tracking their Asian peers, the Indian markets opened on a positive note on Wednesday. Benchmarks Nifty50 and the Sensex gained 0.2% each. The headline indices opened at 16,270.05 and 54,544.91 respectively amid mixed global cues.  

In the broader market, Nifty midcap and smallcap indices gained 0.8% and 0.6% respectively. 

Sectorally, except Nifty Pharma and Healthcare, all other sectoral indices were seen trading in the green in the opening trade. Metal, realty and banking stocks saw good buying interest as compared to stocks from other sectors.  

In the pre-open, the Sensex gained 125 points as 21 shares advanced and 9 declined on the 30-share index.  

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said highlighted three trends that stand out in the  ongoing bear phase in the market.

One, India is outperforming, while Nasdaq and S&P 500 are down 27% and 17% from the peak, Nifty is down only 12%, he said.  "Two, large-caps are outperforming mid-and small-caps: Small-cap and Mid-cap indices are down 24% and 17% respectively from the peak, while Nifty is down only 12%. Three, value is outperforming growth," he said. 

Vijayakumar said sustained buying by DIIs and retail investors is imparting resilience to the market even when FPIs continue to be in the sell mode.

"An unhealthy trend in the market is retail investors chasing low-grade cheap stocks. The only sensible strategy in this highly volatile environment is to buy small quantities of high quality stocks for the long-term and refrain from speculation," the expert advised retail investors. 

Earlier, SGX Nifty Futures was trading lower by nearly 30 points on the Singaporean exchange around 9 am on Wednesday.  

Besides, Japanese Nikkei was trading higher by 0.3%, Chinese shanghai Composite gained nearly 1.5% and Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange was up 0.9% in the early trade on Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, Dow Jones extended losses for the fourth straight day as US markets closed on a mixed note on Tuesday. On Wall Street, Dow Jones closed lower by 85 points, while Nasdaq and S&P 500 ended higher by 114 and 10 points respectively.