Sensex, Nifty open in green led by a rally in financial and bank stocks

Benchmark stock market indices started the week on a positive note as they opened in green, led by gains in heavyweight financial and banking stocks on Monday.

The S&P BSE Sensex was up 343.70 points to 79,745.99, whiile the Nifty50 was up 66.05 points to 24,246.85 as of 9:25 AM. Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd said that in the past week, the Nifty closed 2.71% lower, poised for its worst monthly performance since March 2020, while Bank Nifty slid 2.51%.

“This week, volatility is expected to dominate, with key factors including the U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls, the upcoming US Presidential Election, continued FII outflows exceeding Rs 1,00,242 crore in October, escalating Middle East tensions, and rising WTI oil prices above $71.75. For today’s session, focus will be on Q2 earnings from major firms like Adani Power, Ambuja Cement, Sun Pharma, and Bharti Airtel. Key trades include selling Nifty (24,181) and Bank Nifty (50,787), with a bearish outlook on NMDC, Grasim, and BPCL,” he added.

Shriram Finance emerged as the top gainer, surging by 3.86%, followed by BPCL which advanced 2.79%. Banking stocks showed strong momentum with ICICI Bank rising 2.08% and State Bank of India (SBI) gaining 1.63%. Hindalco rounded off the top gainers with an increase of 1.60%.

On the losing side, in early trade, Coal India led the declines with a drop of 2.28%, while ONGC fell by 1.17%. Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (LT) declined by 1.14%, while JSW Steel slipped 1.01%. Eicher Motors showed a relatively smaller decline of 0.87%.