The Indian stock market opened flat on Monday, with no fresh catalysts to push the indices higher. Early trade showed weakness in IT stocks, which dragged the overall market down slightly.
At 9:26 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was marginally up by 36.40 points, trading at 82,366.99, while the NSE Nifty50 edged down by 5.65 points to 25,014.15.
Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, attributed the ongoing market rally primarily to sustained foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows, which have totaled around ₹23,800 crore so far this month. He noted that easing global trade tensions, a rally in global markets led by the US, and the India-Pak ceasefire have created a conducive environment for the rally. Additionally, domestic mutual funds, holding significant cash reserves, are expected to step in and buy on dips, providing further market support despite stretched valuations.
Among individual stocks, NTPC led gains on the Sensex, rising 0.79%, followed by Asian Paints (up 0.70%), Bajaj Finance (0.63%), Hindustan Unilever (0.47%), and Tata Motors (0.44%).
On the downside, Infosys declined 1.20%, Tata Consultancy Services slipped 0.96%, Eternal was down 0.87%, IndusInd Bank lost 0.75%, and HCLTech dropped 0.74%. The IT sector showed notable weakness, with multiple IT companies featuring among the early market laggards.
