Mumbai, February 16: The Indian equity benchmarks opened flat on Monday amid mixed global signals. At 9:21 AM, the Sensex dipped marginally by 21 points to 82,605, while the Nifty edged up 2 points to 25,473.
Pharma and healthcare stocks provided early support, with Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare leading the gainers. Other sectoral indices like Nifty Realty, Nifty Energy, Nifty Consumer Durables, Nifty Private Bank, and Nifty PSE also traded in positive territory.
In contrast, Nifty Media, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Metal, Nifty IT, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Commodities, Nifty Services, and Nifty India Defence were in the red.
Among Sensex constituents, Power Grid, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, Eternal, Kotak Mahindra Bank, M&M, HCL Tech, and Bharti Airtel were the top performers. Infosys, SBI, Tech Mahindra, HUL, Titan, UltraTech Cement, TCS, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, and Trent faced selling pressure.
Midcap and smallcap indices underperformed largecaps, with Nifty Midcap 100 down 203 points or 0.34% at 59,234, and Nifty Smallcap 100 declining 79 points or 0.47% to 16,953.
Global markets showed a mixed trend. Tokyo and Bangkok were down, Hong Kong traded lower, and US indices closed mixed on Friday with Dow up 0.10% and Nasdaq down 0.22%.
In commodities, crude oil prices rose slightly, with Brent at $67.80 per barrel (up 0.10%) and WTI at $62.80 per ounce (up 0.09%). Gold fell 0.80% to $5,002 per ounce, and silver dropped 3.61% to $75.11 per ounce.
Investors remain cautious ahead of key economic data releases and corporate earnings, watching for any shifts in global sentiment.