Sensex, Nifty jump in early trade; Morepen Labs, CIE Auto surge up to 14%; IDFC First Bank, UPL dive up to 20%

Indian equity benchmarks staged a decent recovery in Monday's trade following a sharp drop in the previous session. At last check, the 30-share BSE Sensex pack was up 615.84 points or 0.74 per cent at 83,430.55, while the NSE Nifty50 index climbed 180.80 points or 0.71 per cent to 25,752.05.

Top gainers included Morepen Laboratories Ltd, CIE Automotive India Ltd, Kitex Garments Ltd, KRN Heat Exchanger And Refrigeration Ltd and LT Foods Ltd, rising up to 14.25 per cent. On the flip side, IDFC First Bank Ltd, UPL Ltd, Godfrey Phillips India Ltd, AU Small Finance Bank Ltd and Newgen Software Technologies Ltd plunged up to 20 per cent.

The rebound extended beyond the frontline indices. The Nifty Midcap 100 edged up 0.09 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 rose 0.94 per cent, reflecting improving risk appetite in the broader markets.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said, "The Trump tariff tale has become murkier after the US Supreme Court declared the tariffs illegal. The SC judgement is, indeed, a landmark decision which will seriously impact Trump’s tariff weaponisation strategy. Even the new 15 % global tariff imposed under section 122 will be challenged in courts and the probability of this decision getting annulled is high since section 122 allows the US president to impose tariffs to tackle a serious Balance of Payments crisis, and the US doesn’t have a Balance of Payments crisis now."

He added, "India has already delayed the visit of its trade negotiating team to the US in light of the changed scenario. This is a welcome move. From the market perspective, the US SC decision is indeed positive, but this is not sufficient to trigger a sustained rally in the market. The market will see only a relief rally, which is unlikely to sustain. The market will respond only to the fundamentals, which are fortunately improving."

Aakash Shah, Technical Research Analyst at Choice Equity Broking, said, "Given persistent global uncertainties and elevated market volatility, traders are advised to remain disciplined and selective, focusing on fundamentally strong stocks during corrective phases. Fresh long positions should ideally be considered only after a sustained breakout of the Nifty above 26,000, which would signal a more reliable improvement in overall market sentiment and confirm a stronger bullish structure."

On the institutional flows front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling, offloading equities worth Rs 934 crore on February 20. In contrast, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) provided strong support by purchasing equities worth Rs 2,637 crore.