Dalal Street began Thursday’s session on a firm footing, with broad-based buying lifting most major indices in the opening hour. The Nifty 50 climbed 111.60 points, or 0.47%, to 23,770.60 as of 10:00 AM IST, while the Sensex mirrored that strength, advancing 351.24 points by the same margin to 75,669.63. Both benchmarks had touched higher ground earlier in the session — the Nifty reaching as far as 23,859.90 and the Sensex briefly touching 75,945.79 — before settling at slightly more modest levels.
The banking index was a clear contributor to the upward tone. Bank Nifty opened at 53,826.30, up 264.10 points or 0.49%, the strongest percentage gain among the large headline indices. The index touched an intraday high of 54,109.15, suggesting firm appetite in the financials space through the early minutes of trade.
Among sectoral indices, metals stood out as the morning’s outperformer. Nifty Metal surged 157.20 points, or 1.19%, to 13,343.70, with the day’s range running from 13,253.90 to a peak of 13,348.10 — placing the index very close to its session high at the time of this report. Realty was similarly buoyant, with Nifty Realty gaining 8.70 points, or 1.13%, to 775.75, touching a high of 779.90 in early trade.
Auto and pharma added to the positive breadth without matching the pace set by metals and realty. Nifty Auto rose 100.70 points, or 0.39%, to 26,015.05, operating within a range of 25,985.40 to 26,235.20. Nifty Pharma advanced a more modest 55.40 points, or 0.22%, to 24,898.55, having briefly tested the 25,001.00 mark before pulling back slightly.
The one index that stood apart from the morning’s positive tone was Nifty IT, which slipped 10.20 points, or 0.03%, to 29,174.95. The decline was marginal — the index traded within a narrow range of 29,123.90 to 29,328.35 — but it was the sole sectoral index in the red at the opening, making it the clear laggard of the early session.
Taken together, the opening picture on 21 May 2026 was one of measured optimism across most segments of the market. Seven of the eight tracked indices opened in positive territory, with metals and realty posting the sharpest gains. The IT index’s marginal dip kept the session from being uniformly bullish, but the weight of the numbers pointed firmly upward as Indian equities settled into the morning’s trade.
Market data sourced from Yahoo Finance. Prices reflect closing/last traded values as of Thursday, 21 May 2026, 10:00 AM IST. Data may be delayed by approximately 5 minutes. This article is for informational purposes only.
