Sensex, Nifty gain in early trade as India carries out ‘Operation Sindoor’

Mumbai: The Indian benchmark indices erased early losses and began rising on Wednesday as India carried out ‘Operation Sindoor’ at nine terror locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam attack that took 26 lives.

At around 9.34 am, Sensex was 160 points up at 80,800 while Nifty was up 56 points at 24,435.35. Both the indices pared early losses.

On NSE, eight sectoral indices advanced and seven declined out of 12. The NSE Nifty Media declined the most, and the NSE Nifty PSU Bank rose the most.

Tata Motors, Shriram Finance, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Finance, Hindalco were among major gainers on the Nifty, while losers were Asian Paints, Titan Company, TCS, L&T and Tech Mahindra.

According to analysts, what stands out in ‘Operation Sindoor’ from the market perspective is its focused and non-escalatory nature.

“We have to wait and watch how the enemy reacts to this precision strikes by India. The market is unlikely to be impacted by the retaliatory strike by India since that was known and discounted by the market,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments.

The main catalyst of the market resilience in India is the sustained FII buying of the last 14 trading days which has touched a cumulative figure of Rs 43,940 crore in the cash market.

FIIs are focused on the global macros like weak dollar, slower growth in US and China in 2025 and India’s potential outperformance in growth. This can keep the market resilient. However, investors have to watch the developments in the border, said market experts.

The big shift in market preference in favour of largecaps away from overvalued segments of mid and smallcaps is significant. FIIs, as always, are mainly buying largecaps and this trend can continue.

Additionally, geopolitical tensions are expected to introduce further volatility, influencing short-term market movements.

Meanwhile, US stocks fell on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting. Investors are watching closely to see how President Trump’s tariffs could influence the Fed’s stance on interest rates and the broader economic outlook.

–IANS