Sensex, Nifty surge in early trade amid rally in global markets, buying in bank stocks

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rallied in early trade on Tuesday (March 18, 2025) in-tandem with a positive trend in global markets and buying in bank stocks.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 490.12 points to 74,660.07 in early trade. The NSE Nifty climbed 162.55 points to 22,671.30.

From the Sensex pack, ICICI Bank, Zomato, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, Power Grid and Adani Ports were among the biggest gainers.

However, Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance were the laggards.

Among Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory.

U.S. markets ended higher on Monday.

“Broad indications are that the market has bottomed out even though further corrections cannot be completely ruled out. Positive domestic cues like rebound on FY25 Q3 GDP growth to 6.2%, spurt in IIP, increase in gross tax collection, declining trade deficit and more importantly decline in CPI inflation to 3.6% are positive macro trends which augur well for the market,” V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said.

But these domestic tailwinds are not strong enough to take the market to higher levels on a sustained basis since the global headwinds from tariff wars will counter the domestic tailwinds, he added.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.25% to $71.25 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹4,488.45 crore on Monday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) bought worth Rs 6,000.60 crore, according to exchange data.

The Sensex climbed 341.04 points or 0.46% to settle at 74,169.95 on Monday, snapping its five-day losing run. The Nifty rose by 111.55 points or 0.50% to 22,508.75.