FIRST TRADE: Sensex up 200 points, Nifty hovers around 19,400; Hindustan Zinc down 4%

The equity benchmark indices opened in the green on Monday, July 10. In the early trade, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 168 points, or 0.26 per cent higher at 65,448.38 levels, while the NSE's Nifty was trading at 19,386.15, up 54 points. Reliance Industries (RIL) was the top gainer on the index - up over 3 per cent, followed by Tata Motors (up 1 per cent) and Tata Steel (up nearly 1 per cent). 

"Traders will have to brace for a choppy and volatile session amid weakness in the GIFT Nifty index and Wall Street's extended losses on Friday. Investors fear the Federal Reserve may start hiking rates again at its FOMC meeting on July 26. Also, all eyes will now be on India's CPI inflation numbers to be announced on July 12. More than that, the US inflation figures for June scheduled to be released on Wednesday will be closely watched, as any uptick would provide ammo for the US Fed Reserve to hike rates," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd.

Commanding attention will also be the corporate earnings season for the quarter ending June FY24, as IT majors TCS and HCL Technologies will announce their results on July 12, followed by Wipro on July 13. On the technical front, a major hurdle for Nifty is seen at its all-time high level of 19524 mark," Tapse added.

Among individual stocks, Hindustan Zinc (HZL) slipped over 4 per cent after the company announced an interim dividend of Rs 7 for the current fiscal year. HDFC Bank, on the other hand, was up 0.85 per cent. The private sector lender will replace Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) Ltd on the MSCI Global Standard indexes from Thursday, July 13, an MSCI release on Friday said.

BROADER MARKET INDICES

The S&P BSE MidCap index was trading 0.27 per cent lower at 28,920.12 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap index was trading at 33,120.77, down 0.03 per cent.