Sensex, Nifty witness a volatile opening hour of trade; Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints lead gainers

Nifty Realty, Nifty Media and Nifty PSU Bank were the sectoral indices that traded with losses while others were gaining.

Domestic benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened with gains on Tuesday morning, a day after the nears brought their 6-day gaining spree to a screeching halt, but did not hold on for long. S&P BSE Sensex was up dancing between gains and losses after the initial hour of trade while Nifty 50 was still above the 11,400 mark. Sensex and Nifty were dancing between gains and losses as index heavyweights like Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank slipped into the red. IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, and NTPC were some of the best performing stocks on Sensex.

Top gainers: NTPC, IndusInd Bank, and Asian Paints were fighting for the top spot on Sensex. Among BSE Midcap constituents, Crisil and Au Small Finance Bank were up over 4% each making them the top gainers. On the BSE Smallcap Index, Technocraft and Essel Propack Ltd were the top gainers.

Top drags: ONGC, which was one of the few stocks that managed to gain when Sensex tanked yesterday, was the worst performing stocks on the Street today. It was followed by Axis Bank and ICICI Bank. Future Retail was down nearly 10% among BSE Midcap constituents. Jindal Poly Films and GMM were the top smallcap drags.

Midcap indices outperform, Smallcap indices underperform: While Nifty Midcap 100 and Midcap 50 indices were seen outperforming the benchmark indices on Tuesday morning, the smallcap indices were seen underperforming. Nifty Smallcap 100 was 0.64%. 

Sectoral watch: Nifty Realty, Nifty Media and Nifty PSU Bank were the sectoral indices that traded with losses while others were gaining. Nifty Metal was surging 1.33% higher followed by Auto’s 1.05% jump.

Technical take: “The markets have held the dicey level of 11300 quite smartly! We need to hold this level so that bearish sentiments do not get triggered. As long as 11300 holds on a closing basis, we have nothing to worry about – the uptrend continues. In order for an impulse to commence on the upside, we must go past 11600 on a closing basis,” Manish Hathiramani, Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.