Indian equity indices opened Friday’s trading session on a positive note for the fourth consecutive session. The NSE Nifty 50 opened 67 points or 0.27% higher at 24,801. The BSE Sensex opened 237 points or 0.29% higher at 80,955.
Bank Nifty opened flat at 54,218. Following the benchmarks, the small and midcap stocks opened the day higher. The Nifty Midcap rose 173 points or 0.30% to open at 57,132.
“The initial enthusiasm witnessed in the market yesterday couldn’t be sustained. The expected short-covering did not happen, bringing the prices down towards the close. Also, the market had partly discounted the GST reforms earlier. The high valuations, even amidst geopolitical and tariff-related headwinds, helped bears to accumulate short positions in the market. The sustained massive buying by mutual funds in equity has touched Rs 70,500 crores in August. With high money muscle facilitated by the sustaining fund flows into the market, mutual fund buying will support the market during declines,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments.
“We believe the short-term market outlook remains positive. However, a fresh bullish trend is possible only after crossing the 24,850 levels. Above this, the market may move towards 25,000. On the downside, 24,650 and 24,700 are key support zones for day traders. If the index drops below 24,580, then the uptrend may weaken,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research at Kotak Securities.
Let’s take a look at the key factors to watch out for today’s trading session
Early gainers and laggards
In early trade, among the Nifty 50, top gainers at this hour were Power Grid Corp, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, and Reliance Industries. On the flip side, the key laggards in the Nifty 50 pack included ITC, Apollo Hospitals, Tata Consumer Products, Titan, and Nestle India.
Global markets
The Asian markets are trending higher in Friday’s morning trade, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 is up 0.83% in early trading, while the Topix index increased 0.31%. The futures contract tied to the US benchmarks is a little changed. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 4 points, or 0.01%, while S&P 500 futures were also virtually unchanged, up just 0.09%. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.2%.