Stock market news: Benchmark indices NSE Nifty 50 and S&P BSE Sesnex opened Monday, February 26, 2024, on a lower note dragged by financials, information technology, consumer durables and oil indices. Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services, however, erased losses and turned flat during early trade. 

While L&T, PowerGrid, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, and Grasim are among the top gainers, Asian Paints, BPCL, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, and Infosys are among the top losers in early trade.

As of 9:35 am, Nifty 50 was trading 39.20 points lower at 22,173.50 and BSE Sensex was trading 147.79 points lower at 72,995.01.

“In strict terms, the prevailing advice is to maintain an aggressive bullish stance, supported by sentimental, fundamental, and technical analyses indicating that FOMO is likely to drive the Nifty towards the 22,500 mark within the interweek timeframe. Two significant reasons for the Nifty surge are hopes for a soft landing engineered by the Federal Reserve and anticipation of a strong popular mandate for the ruling party BJP in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

“However, negative catalysts, including the Fed's reluctance to cut rates and persistent inflation concerns highlighted in the RBI's MPC Minutes, are being kept on the back burner. Key events to watch this week include the release of the January PCE index, US GDP numbers for the fourth quarter of 2023, India's GDP numbers for the same period, and the monthly expiry of February futures & options contracts. Investors will also closely monitor February's auto sales data. Before delving into specifics, the preferred trades for Nifty, Bank Nifty, and LARSEN are outlined, with respective stop and target points provided,” Tapse added.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, "The global market construct continues to be favourable. With the S&P 500 setting newer records the mother market US has turned very resilient. Japanese Nikkei at record highs is another pillar of support for global markets. Even though high valuation in India is a matter of concern, it is unlikely to impact the market much in the near term. Cheap valuation in China is not attracting foreign investors.

The market leadership is now with fundamentally strong bluechips like Reliance, ICICI Bank and Bharti. Sustained buying by DIIs (Rs 21,700 crores in February so far) supported by HNIs and retail investors has completely eclipsed the FII selling. FIIs have lost in this tug of war with DIIs since the market has been scaling new highs despite FII selling."