Opening Bell: Nifty, Sensex gain over half per cent each; banking stocks shine, FMCG decline

The Indian market opened on a positive note amid positive global markets and negative short-term trend on Thursday. Tracking positive global cues, the broader Nifty50 started near 16,100, while the Sensex added over 350 points in the opening trade. Benchmarks opened at 16,105.00 and 53,950.84 respectively, taking cues from overnight gains in the US markets.  

In the broader market, Nifty mid cap and small cap gained by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively.  

Sector-wise, FMCG was seen under pressure as realty, healthcare and oil & gas too declined. Nifty Metal and PSU Bank were the top gainers.  

"There are indications of market stabilising and consolidating around current levels. In the mother market, the US, there is a strong view that the fears of recession are overdone. The S&P 500 bouncing back from the 19% correction from the peak is, perhaps, a message from the market that the steep correction is over," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

For the Indian economy, elevated crude prices will continue to be a major headwind and sustained FPI selling, which can be expected to continue, will be a major hurdle for the market to rally, the expert highlighted. 

"Market trend continues to be uncertain and, therefore, what investors can do now is to buy high quality stocks for medium to long-term. Financials, particularly leading banks, are good buys for the medium to long-term," the expert added.

In the pre-open, the Sensex gained over 50 points as 25 stocks advanced, four declined and one remained neutral on the 30-share index.  

Earlier, Asian indices were largely trading in the green in early trade on Thursday. SGX Nifty Futures, which indicates trend for the Indian market, was trading higher by 40 points on the Singaporean exchange. Japanese Nikkei 225 was trading flat with positive bias, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange dropped more than one per cent, while Chinese Shanghai Composite was trading higher by 0.4%. 

On Wednesday, the US markets made a strong recovery from lower levels as Dow Jones ended with a gain of over 190 points, Nasdaq ended higher by 170 points and S&P 500 rose 37 points.