Opening Bell: Nifty, Sensex open flat; Bank, FMCG stocks gain, metal top loser

Extending weakness, the Indian market opened with marginal cuts on Monday. Benchmarks Nifty50 and Sensex started around 0.15% lower. The broader Nifty50 opened at 15,710.50 and the 30-share Sensex started at 52,851.67. However, the barometer indices reversed trends to swing into the green zone.  

In the broader market, Nifty midcap rose by 0.6% and smallcap index was trading higher by 0.7% as India VIX remained above 22-mark 

On the sectoral front, Nifty IT, Metal and Energy declined, while all other indices remained in the green in the opening trade.   

In the pre-open, the Sensex declined marginally lower by over 50 points as 15 stocks advanced, 14 declined and one remained neutral on the 30-share index.  

"Market movement this month is likely to be significantly influenced by the Q1 results starting with TCS's results on 8th July. More than the actual numbers, the market will be focussed on the guidance. Similarly, in financials, particularly banking, the market will be keen to know the trends in credit growth rather than the decline in treasury income, which is already known," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services 

The buoyancy in GST collections and June auto numbers indicate that economic recovery is gaining momentum, in spite of many headwinds, and this bodes well for the market's performance in H2 FY23, the expert said. 

"In the present context of high near-term uncertainty, the best strategy for investors would be to buy high-quality large-caps in a calibrated manner and wait with patience," he added. 

Earlier, the cues from the Asian and global markets remained mixed on Monday morning.  

SGX Nifty Futures, which hints at the opening trend of the Indian market, was trading lower by more than 30 points on the Singaporean exchange on Monday morning.  

On the other hand, Japanese Nikkei 225 gained 0.7%, while Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange dropped nearly one per cent and Chinese Shanghai Composite traded flat with negative bias.  

Earlier, the US markets closed on a high note on Friday. US equity benchmarks Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 ended higher by 0.9% to 1.06%.