rewrite this title and make it good for SEOSensex opens over 250 pts higher, Nifty50 10 pts shy of 24,900

Domestic equity benchmarks began Wednesday’s session in the green, led by gains in financial shares, shrugging off caution across global markets ahead of a looming US tariff deadline. Both headline indices opened about 0.3 per cent higher, but gave up much of those gains shortly afterwards. The Sensex rose 256.6 points to trade at 81,594.5 while the Nifty50 added 69.3 points to 24,890.4 at the opening bell. 

At 9:17 am, the Sensex was left with a gain of 72 points at 81,410 while the Nifty50 was up 23.1 points at 24,844.2.

Top Nifty 50 gainers and losers

Among blue-chip stocks, Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel, BEL, Bharti Airtel and Jio Financial Services–trading between 0.7 per cent and 3.1 per cent higher–were the top gainers in the Nifty50 basket. On the other hand, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy’s, Asian Paints, HUL and Bajaj Auto–quoting between 0.7 per cent and 2.8 per cent lower–were the worst hit among the 31 losers in the 50-blue-chip pack.

Larsen & Toubro was the biggest contributor to the gains in both main indices, a day after the construction giant staged a strong financial performance for the April-June period. L&T’s net profit jumped almost 30 per cent while margin remained largely steady at 12.6 per cent.

The Nifty Bank–whose 12 constituents include SBI, HDFC Bank and other top lenders of the country–see-sawed between gains and losses in the 56,150-56,300 band after making a mildly positive start to the session. 

Among broader indices, the Nifty Midcap 100 was barely in the green while the Nifty Smallcap 100 was up 0.3 per cent in early trade. 

Overall market breadth was extremely positive, with an advance-decline ratio of 3:1 as 1,837 stocks rose while 627 declined on BSE. 

Global Markets | How Asia, Wall Street fared

It was a mixed bag of moves across Asia, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan holding on to the green with a half a per cent gain. Caution persisted among investors ahead of an imminent deadline of August 1 when a pause on US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs for most of America’s trade partners is lifted.

Trump tantrum

Team Trump has already hinted at no further extensions, as the US government intends the tariffs to come into force, although negotiations are expected to continue even afterwards.

Key index moves 

Japan’s Nikkei 225: flat
China’s Shanghai Composite: up 0.5 per cent
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng: down 0.4 per cent
Singapore’s Straits Times: down 0.2 per cent
South Korea’s KOSPI: up 0.8 per cent

Wall Street | Dow Jones & more

On Tuesday, the three main Wall Street indices closed 0.3-0.5 per cent lower as a bunch of Dow Jones companies reported earnings. The S&P 500 and the Dow retreated from record highs amid a host of disappointing results, while all eyes were also on an incoming Fed statement. 

The Dow Jones gave up 204.6 points, or 0.5 per cent, to settle at 44,633, the S&P 500 fell 18.9 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 6,370.9, and the tech stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 80.3 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 21,098.3.