Opening Bell: Nifty reclaims 16,300, Sensex open higher by 150 points; auto stocks shine

The Indian market opened on a positive note amid mixed cues from Asian market on Monday. The broader Nifty50 opened near16,300 and the Sensex added around 150 points. The two indices started at 16,290.95 and 54,459.95 respectively. The Nifty soon surpassed 16,200 and was trading above 16,300.  

Meanwhile Nifty midcap gained more than half per cent, while small cap opened flat.  

"The 'risk-off, risk-on roller coaster market' is set to continue in the near-term.The rebound in S&P 500 from the bear market territory last Friday may be an indication that the market is unlikely to turn long-term bearish. Macro numbers from the US in the coming days will be keenly watched by the market," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The government's aggressive move on inflation by cutting the excise duties on petrol and diesel and other initiatives to soften the prices of steel will slightly reduce RBI's burden on controlling inflation, he said. "Even though this is a positive from the market perspective, the government's additional borrowing and fiscal deficit shooting beyond the budget estimates are areas of concern," the expert added.

Meanwhile, in the pre-open, the Sensex was trading higher by more than 130 points as 25 stocks advanced and 5 declined on the 30-share index.  

Sectorally, auto gained nearly 3%, while Metal dropped more than 6% in the early trade on Monday 

Earlier, Asian markets were trading mixed on Monday morning. Japanese Nikkei 225 was trading higher by 0.7%, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange declined more than 1% and Chinese Shanghai Composite was also marginally down by 0.15%.  

The trends from SGX Nifty hinted at a flat opening for the Indian market as Futures Index on the Singaporean Exchange was trading lower by 5 points, minutes before opening time of Indian markets.  

Earlier, the US market closed mixed as Dow Jones ended marginally higher, Nasdaq slipped more than 30 points, S&P 500 ended flat with no gains and Russell 200 dropped 3 points