Sensex opens higher, Nifty in the red; Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Kotak Bank top gainers

Stock market today: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened higher amid mixed trend in the global market. While US market ended at record close, Asian markets were trading in the red. Sensex rose 141 pts to 78,781 and Nifty lost 150 pts to 24,622. The sharp divergence in the indices continued in  early deals today. During closing on Monday, the implementation of Closing Auction Session led to a sharp divergence in the benchmark indices.

On closing divergence in Sensex and Nifty on Monday, NSE said the Closing Auction Session was implemented under the guidance of SEBI as it promotes transparency and fair and robust price discovery.

"NSE clarifies that there is no sudden change in the index at 3:30 PM during the Closing Auction Session, as order collection, cancellation and matching follow a defined process. The Closing Auction Session is being implemented in a phased manner from August 3, 2026, for cash segment stocks with derivatives contracts. On the first day of implementation, 515 trading members placed orders for 56,773 unique PANs, indicating strong participation," said the stock exchange in a statement.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments said, “The 390 point spurt in the Nifty yesterday caused primarily by the new closing auction session (CAS) for determining the closing prices of stocks in the F&O segment is expected to normalise today. The sharp spike in Nifty vis-a-vis Sensex was an aberration caused by the new CAS, and therefore, investors need not attach much importance to this one-day aberration."

Stocks such as Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, Adani Ports, Trent and were the top Sensex gainers today, rising up to 1.31%. Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 491.20 lakh crore.

HUL, Infosys and Tech Mahindra were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1%.

Previous session 

The 30-share BSE Sensex pack advanced 544.39 points or 0.70 per cent to settle at 78,639.03. The broader NSE Nifty50 index climbed 390.70 points or 1.60 per cent to close at 24,774.30. The equity market extended its winning streak for the fourth consecutive session on Monday.