Opening bell: Markets open flat, IT and pharma stocks drag, oil and gas, telecom, auto sectors rise; Nifty maintains 17,500 level

On Thursday morning, the markets opened flat after trading in the green in the pre-opening session.

On Thursday morning, the markets opened flat after trading in the green in the pre-opening session.  

The investors’ hopes of de-escalation the war are short-lived and the uncertainties pertaining to the war still persist.  

The market is riding higher on the trend reversal of the FIIs, who now have turned into buyers while the DIIs also support the buying in the domestic markets. Also, crude oil price falling by 5 per cent is also a good sign for the markets to be buoyant.  

Sensex is at 58,837.49, up by 153.50 points or 0.26 per cent whereas Nifty 50 is at 17,543.60, up by 45.35 points or 0.26 per cent, maintaining the 17,500 mark.  

BSE Midcap was trading at 24,135.49, up by 0.41 per cent while BSE Smallcap was at 28,346.24, up by 0.77 per cent. Similarly, Nifty Midcap 100 was at 29,725.25, up by 0.45 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 was at 10,460.15, up by 0.92 per cent.   
The top gainers on the frontline indices this morning were Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, IOC, and Tata Consumer Products.  

Likewise, the top losers on the bourses were Hindalco Industries, Power Grid Corporation of India, Eicher Motors, Cipla, Reliance Industries, Infosys, and Wipro.   

On BSE, 1,752 shares have advanced while 880 shares declined and 116 shares are unchanged. Also, 152 stocks have hit their upper circuit and 108 stocks hit the lower circuit.   

The top trending stocks on BSE this morning are Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, Aavas Financiers, HDFC, Axis Bank, Linde India, and Tata Elxsi.  

On the sectoral front, IT, pharma, and healthcare indices were dragging. On the other hand, finance, oil & gas, auto, and telecom indices were holding up the broader indices.