Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks started trade in the positive territory in early trade on Monday, led by strong gains in banking, auto, and financial stocks. However, the indices quickly erased gains and later sank into the red amid high volatility.
At 10.30 am, the BSE Sensex was trading at 60,971, marginally up 21 points, while broader NSE Nifty was trading at 18,147, up 30 points.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, State Bank of India was the top gainer, rising 4.38 per cent, followed by Nestle India, NTPC, M&M, Maruti, L&T, and HUL. The PSB on Saturday clocked the highest-ever quarterly profit at Rs 13,265 crore, up 74 per cent year-on-year, for the September quarter of FY23, buoyed by robust loan sales, higher interest income and lower provisions.
On the flip side, Titan, Asian Paint, DrReddy's, Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, and others were the prime losers.
In the broader markets, Nifty MidCap 100 and Nifty SmallCap indices gained up to 0.7 per cent.
Barring Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma indices, all sectors traded on a positive note. Nifty PSU Bank index gained the most, up over 5 per cent.
In the previous session on Friday, the 30-share index gained momentum as the session progressed to close 114 points (0.19 per cent) higher at 60,950. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rose 64 points (0.36 per cent) to 18,117.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the Indian capital market on Friday as they bought shares worth Rs 1,436.25 crore, as per exchange data.
International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.19 per cent lower at $97.45 per barrel.
In Asian markets, bourses in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were trading with gains. Equities on Wall Street ended significantly higher in the previous session on Friday.
After withdrawing funds in the last two months, foreign investors came back strongly in the first week of November and infused Rs 15,280 crore in Indian equities in hopes that US Federal Reserve would go soft on rate hikes.
Going forward, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) flows are expected to remain volatile in the near-term given the headwinds in terms of monetary tightening, and geo-political concerns among others, Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities, said.
Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran has said India is encountering global shocks with a position of strength backed by far better household, corporate and financial sector balance sheets and its medium-term growth outlook is good.
Meanwhile, the rupee gained 13 paise to 82.20 against the US dollar in early deals on Monday.