First Trade: Indices open higher; Nifty opens higher at 23,754, Sensex adds 447 points

Indian equities in Monday's session (December 23) opened higher taking positive cues from the Wall Street and upbeat Asian markets. At the start, the BSE Sensex moved higher by 0.57 per cent or 447 points at 78,488.64, while the NSE Nifty50 was up 0.7 per cent or 166 points at 23,753.5.

Broader markets, meanwhile, underperformed the headline indices with both Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 up upto 0.58 per cent.

Sectorally, there was witnessed widespread buying, with the metal, FMCG and oil & gas indices trading in the green.

The FII buying witnessed in early December completely reversed last week with FII selling of Rs 15826 crores.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said,  "The outperformance of the US (S&P 500 up 25 per cent YTD) and the relative underperformance of India (Nifty up 14.64 per cent YTD) are driving this change in FII strategy. The strength of the US economy, robust US corporate earnings, expectation of corporate tax cut by President Trump soon after assuming office and the steady appreciation in US dollar are factors favourable to the US market."

Slowdown in Q2 GDP growth and stagnation in corporate earnings in India have soured the domestic market sentiments, he added.
 

Technicals

Akshay Chinchalkar, Head of Research, Axis Securities said, "The Nifty ended 1.5 per cent down Friday and dropped 4.8 per cent for the week, its worst weekly slump since 19th June, 2022. The market is expected to remain weak unless it is able to record a daily close above 24,150, a level where a so-called 'falling window' was created on Friday. The support lies at 23400, which is the objective of the short-term head and shoulders top that was confirmed on 18th December."

Under that, final support for bulls lies at the November 21 low of 23,263. The three-day momentum is under five and, therefore, deeply extended on the downside, so the likelihood of a rebound remains very high, he added.

Asian markets

Most Asian stocks surged today as softer US inflation print bolstered bets that interest rate will be reduced going ahead in the next year. At the last count, the key MSCI ex Japan index was up over 1 per cent at 571.95. Japan's Nikkei and the Singapore's Straits Times traded with the highest gains of nearly 0.9 per cent. Japanese stocks emerged as the outliers amid speculation over a potential merger of Honda and Nissan.