Sensex Starts 250 Points Higher, Nifty Above 24,700; Pharma Emerges Top Sectoral Loser

Stock Market Today: Domestic headline indices started the session on May 23 on a flat note, tracking US market indices. The Sensex opened 54.99 points or 0.07 per cent lower at 80,897, while the Nifty 50 started 29.80 points or 0.12 per cent higher at 24,639.50. However, a few minutes into the trade, Sensex rose as much as 250 odd points to reclaim 81,200 level, and Nifty 50 surged over 110 odd points to trade above 23,700 level.

Earlier on May 22, Sensex closed 644.64 points, or 0.79 per cent lower at 80,951.99 and the Nifty 50 ended 203.75 points or 0.82 per cent in red at 24,609.70.

The broader indices, however, quoted firmly in the red. The Nifty Midcap 100 lost over 0.15 per cent, and Nifty Smallcap 100 shed some 0.4 per cent in early trade.

Pharma Emerges Top Loser, FMCG, IT Gain

On the sectoral front, FMCG, IT and Oil & Gas traded in the green. Nifty Pharma, on the other hand, emerged as the top sectoral loser, falling over 1.5 per cent. Nifty Healthcare too fell 1.3 per cent. Similarly, Nifty Auto, Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty Media are also quoted in the red. Nifty Metal, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Realty traded around flat levels, showing back-and-forth action.

Nifty Bank, which tracks the top 12 private and public banking stocks, traded in the green, up by 70 points or 0.12 per cent above the 55,000 level.

Sensex, Nifty 50: Top Gainers & Losers

Leading the gains in Sensex were Eternal (formerly Zomato), Power grid, ITC, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, Nestle India and HCL Technologies. Among the top losers in the 30-share index were Sun Pharma, which tumbled nearly 4 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Among the Nifty 50 stocks, Trent and Grasim Industries emerged as the top gainers, rising between 2 per cent and 3 per cent. They were followed by Eternal, Bharat Electronics, SBI Life Insurance, ITC and Infosys. On the losing end were Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Hindalco and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Only four stocks declined in the Nifty 50 in early trade, while the rest traded in green. In the Sensex too, just four stocks traded in red, while the remaining 26 traded higher.

US Indices Close Flat, Asian Indices Trade Higher

In the United States (US), key stock market indices closed nearly unchanged on May 22 after a volatile session, except for Nasdaq, which closed on a positive note.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.35 points lower at 41,859.09, the S&P 500 index ended 2.6 points in red at 5,842.01, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite settled higher by 53.09 points or 0.28 per cent at 18,925.73, as Treasury yields eased off their recent highs, but still held above 5 per cent.

Treasury yields eased slightly after the US House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, which he called “one, big, beautifull bill”. Earlier, concerns over rising debt in US had pushed Treasury yields higher and pressured stocks in the US. Debt concerns, however, still lingers.

Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities, said, "The choppy trading reflected investor uncertainty as markets digested the policy developments and their potential economic implications."

In Asian markets on May 23 early trade, Hong Kong-based Hang Seng traded higher by 0.7 per cent, and China’s SZSE Component and the broader SSE Composite traded up in the range 0.1 per cent to 0.6 per cent.

In Japan, Nikkei 225 and the broader Topix quoted higher by 0.8 per cent each. South Korea’s KOSPI too traded in the green, up by 0.18 per cent.