FIRST TRADE: Sensex up over 150 pts, Nifty trades above 19,550; Paytm jumps 8%

Stock market today: The domestic equity market opened in the green on Monday. At the time of writing this news, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading nearly 150 points, or 0.22 per cent higher at 65,864.89 levels, while the NSE's Nifty was trading at 19,555.30, up 38 points, or 0.20 per cent. Among individual stocks, Paytm jumped as much as 11 per cent after the company, in its regulatory filing, said that its CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma will buy a 10.3 per cent stake in the company from Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V. Last seen, the scrip was up over 8 per cent. 

"Early gains could be seen on the back of optimism in Asian peers even as US markets ended lower on Friday. However, global cues will continue to dictate trends in the domestic markets, as several headwinds across key developed economies could prompt investors here to take a cautious route. Also, the RBI's credit policy announcement on Thursday would be a keenly watched event in the backdrop of the recent hike in interest rates by the US Fed. The street expects the RBI to hold its repo rate at 6.5 per cent as well as uphold its policy stance. The positive catalyst for equity markets is that the 10-year US Treasury yield pulled back on Friday," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.

Among Sensex stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) was the top gainer on the index - up nearly 3 per cent. Next on the gainers' list were Sun Pharma (up 2 per cent), L&T (up nearly 1 per cent), and HCL Tech (up 0.54 per cent). On the downside, Nestle India (down 0.6 per cent) was the biggest loser. 

SECTOR WATCH 

Healthcare stocks were the top gainers. The S&P BSE Healthcare index was up 0.91 per cent at 28,104.32 levels. 

BROADER MARKET

The S&P BSE MidCap index was up 0.27 per cent at 30,244.24 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap index was up 0.32 per cent at  35,183.78 points.