Indices may open gap-up on March 18, 2025

18 Mar 2025 , 09:07 AM

Indian benchmark indices may open higher on March 18. The GIFT Nifty surged 128 points earlier this morning and trading around  22,727.50.

On March 17, Indian equity indices ended on strong note with Nifty above 22,500. At close, the Sensex was up 341.04 points or 0.46% at 74,169.95, and the Nifty was up 111.55 points or 0.50% at 22,508.75.

On the sectoral front, auto, bank, metal, power, pharma rose 0.5-1.5%, while realty, media were down 0.5% each. BSE Midcap index up 0.7% and smallcap index ended on flat note.

Bajaj Finserv, SBI Life Insurance, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Trent, Axis Bank were among the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers included Britannia, Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, BPCL, ITC.

Global markets:

Asian stocks rose for a third day, buoyed by advances in Japanese shares and as investors placed fresh bets on Chinese tech companies.

Things are pointing to a slowdown in the US, but in China “the direction of travel is very much looking to stimulate growth,” Richard Harris, founder and CEO of Port Shelter Investment Management.

At 8.15 AM IST, CSI 300 index was up by 8.55 points the Nikkei 225 was up by 553.32 points and the Hang Seng index was up by 476.81 points.

U.S. stocks gained for a second straight session on Monday as investors sought bargains after the Nasdaq and S&P 500’s four-week tumble and assessed the latest economic data to gauge the impact of the Trump administration’s policies.

Retail sales rebounded marginally in February, but fell short of expectations, reflecting the increasing uncertainty over tariffs and large-scale firing of federal government employees.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab rose 353.44 points, or 0.85%, to 41,841.63, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab gained 36.18 points, or 0.64%, to 5,675.12 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab gained 54.58 points, or 0.31%, to 17,808.66.