Sensex, Nifty 50 rise; mid, small-cap outperform— 10 key highlights from Indian stock market today

Indian stock market ended with decent gains on Wednesday, May 7, shrugging off concerns over rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Benchmark Sensex opened nearly 700 points lower at 79,948.80 after India announced it carried out Operation Sindoor, which targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, but soon reversed quickly, rising over 200 points to an intraday high of 80,844.63.

The Sensex finally closed at 80,746.78, up 106 points, or 0.13 per cent. The NSE counterpart Nifty 50 settled at 24,414.40, up 35 points, or 0.14 per cent. The mid and small-cap segments outperformed significantly. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose 1.36 per cent and 1.16 per cent, respectively.

Thanks to healthy gains in the mid and small-cap indices, the overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms rose to above ₹423 lakh crore from ₹421 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors richer by about ₹2 lakh crore in a single session.

Indian stock market: 10 key highlights from the day

Let’s take a look at 10 key highlights of the stock market today:

1. Why did the Indian stock market not fall despite escalating India-Pakistan tension?

The domestic market is exhibiting remarkable resilience due to healthy foreign capital inflow, favourable macro outlook and largely stable earnings.

Meanwhile, experts see little chance of a full-blown war between India and Pakistan as they highlight the non-escalatory nature of ‘Operation Sindoor’, which avoided attacking Pakistani military or strategic sites and hit only terror camps.

“The market’s biggest concern — the risk of a full-blown war — now appears to be behind us, which is providing a sense of relief. Additionally, there are no strong indications that Pakistan intends to escalate the situation further,” said Pankaj Pandey, the head of research at ICICI Securities.

“Indian equity markets exhibited strong resilience amid recent Indo-Pak border tensions, the measured market response indicated that geopolitical risks were largely priced in and expectations of de-escalation are prevailing among investors,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments.

“The progress on the India–UK FTA further buoyed investor optimism, driving gains in key sectors such as textiles, automobiles, and information technology. Globally, investor sentiment has improved as the United States and China signal a willingness to resume trade negotiations,” said Nair.

(This is a developing story. Please check back for fresh updates.)

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