Nifty opens above 17150, Sensex gains 170 pts on Wed, Mar 22; Hindustan Zinc shares, Tata Motors stock gain

Nifty opens above 17150, Sensex gains 170 pts on Wed, Mar 22; Hindustan Zinc shares, Tata Motors stock gain

Domestic indices opened the Wednesday session in the green territory amid positive global cues. The NSE Nifty 50 opened above 17150, BSE Sensex above 58200 and Bank Nifty above 40000. The top gainers on Nifty 50 were SBI Life, Tata Consumer, HDFC Life, Larsen & Toubro and Bajaj Finance while the top losers were BPCL, Coal India, Cipla, Power Grid and NTPC.

Tata Motors shares rose 1% to Rs 416.50 after the company implemented a price increase of up to 5% on its commercial vehicles starting from 1 April. The decision to increase prices is a result of the company’s efforts to comply with the more stringent BS6 phase II emission norms.

Indian Markets

The NSE Nifty 50 rose 56.85 pts or 0.33% to 17,164.35 and BSE Sensex climbed 178.28 pts or 0.31% to 58,252.96. The sectoral indices were trading mixed. Bank Nifty rose 56.60 pts or 0.14% to 39,951.30, PSU Bank climbed 0.46%, Nifty IT was up 0.74% and Nifty Pharma was up 0.10%.

Asian and US stock markets

Asian markets were trading in green with China’s Shanghai Composite index rising 0.53%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbing 2.26%, South Korea’s KOSPI advanced 1.09% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.93%.

The US market ended the overnight session in positive territory with Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.98%, S&P 500 climbing 1.30% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advancing 1.58%.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold shares worth Rs 1,454.63 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) net acquired equities worth Rs 1,946.06 crore on 21 March, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

NSE F&O Ban

The National Stock Exchange has Biocon and Indiabulls Housing Finance on its F&O ban list for 21 March. According to the NSE, stocks are prohibited in the F&O sector when they have exceeded 95% of the market-wide position limit (MWPL). During the F&O ban period, no new positions are permitted for F&O contracts in that stock.