Sensex Gains In Opening Trade, Banks Shine

Extending their previous week's gains, the benchmark indices witnessed a gap-up opening on Monday, May 24 despite weakness in foreign markets. The BSE Sensex opened higher by 232.01 points at 50,772.49, while the key index Nifty-50 added 43.40 points to open at 15,218.70.

The Banking and Financial stocks continued their upward march and lifted the Sensex in the early trade. Shares of SBI were in major focus among other banks post its Q4 earnings. SBI jumped over three per cent in the early trade, followed by HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank as they surged over a per cent each too.

Experts in the market feel that the rally in the Banking and Financial sector is due to the transfer of surplus by the Reserve Bank of India to the government for the nine-month accounting period ended March 31. Further, the rally is expected to sustain in the near term as the amount is slightly higher than the market expectations which will further ease the deficit burden.

Sectorally, except FMCG and Metal, all other sectors witnessed buying interest from market participants. Pharma and PSU Bank surged over a per cent each in the early trade session. Shares of Central Bank gained over five per cent in the PSU Bank space.

The broader markets continued to shine further after marking record highs in the previous session on Friday. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap index were trading higher with a gain of over 100 points in the morning trade. Shares of Natco Pharma jumped over 10 per cent in the Midcap space after the government allowed five companies to produce the antifungal drug to cure the Black Fungus disease.

The 30-share pack Sensex is now only four per cent away from its record highs which came in February'21. The market capitalization of BSE listed entities also reached the $3 trillion mark on May 21 which portrays a better outlook for the markets. However, Midcaps and Smallcaps have outperformed the blue chips as the indices jumped 20 and 28 per cent so far in 2021.

Moving further, the foreign investors' sentiment will also play a key factor in the near future as the FIIs (Foreign institutional investors) have turned net buyers after a massive outflow that occurred in the previous month owing to the Covid-19 situation, said experts.

The FIIs net acquired shares worth Rs 510.16 crore and, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net purchased shares worth Rs 649.10 crore in the Indian equity market on May 21, as per provisional data available on the exchanges.