Markets climb in early trade on firm global trends

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| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The domestic stock market began the trade on a positive note on March 21 amid firm trend in global equities and buying in index major Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 334.32 points to 57,963.27 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 94.9 points to 17,083.30.

Among the Sensex stocks, Bajaj Finance, Titan, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finserv were among the major winners. Tech Mahindra, Power Grid, HCL Technologies, ITC and Tata Motors were among the biggest laggards.

In Asia, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai markets were trading higher. The U.S. markets had ended in the positive territory on March 20. “A sharp rebound in the overnight U.S. markets could buoy local market sentiment in early trade on Tuesday against the backdrop of the U.S. banking concerns, which are seen subsiding,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior V-P (Research), Mehta Equities Limited, said in his pre-market opening quote.

The BSE benchmark had declined 360.95 points or 0.62% to settle at 57,628.95 on Monday. The Nifty fell 111.65 points or 0.65% to settle at 16,988.40.

“Tomorrow’s Fed decision and commentary will be crucial,” said V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 1.03% to $73.03 per barrel. “Foreign Portfolio Investors offloaded equities worth ₹2,545.87 crore on Monday,” according to exchange data.