First Trade: Nifty opens higher by 65 points; Dredging Corporation up 12%

Indian equities in Wednesday’s trade (May 21, 2025) opened higher after a weak close in the previous session. At the open, the BSE Sensex was at 81,375, up 188.58 points or 0.23 per cent. The NSE Nifty50, meanwhile, was at 24,716, up 32 points or 0.13 per cent. Meanwhile, broader markets traded with weakness, with more selling pressure on the smallcaps.

The Nifty Bank index, on the other hand, traded higher by a tad, led by stocks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and PNB among others.

From within the Nifty50 basket, top gainers included stocks like Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Cipla, Bharat Electronics and Apollo Hospitals, while top laggards were Shriram Finance, Eternal, Trent, IndusInd Bank and Hindalco.

Sectoral performance on May 21, 2025

Pharma stocks emerged as the winner with gains of over 2 per cent on the Nifty Pharma index, followed by Auto and Realty indices. However, only consumer durables gauge saw selling pressure.

Stocks in news today:

Results: 

NIFTY: ONGC (post-market), IndusInd Bank (1 pm – 3:30 pm),   

FNO: Colgate (1 pm – 3 pm), NALCO (post-market), PFC (1 pm – 3 pm), Astral (Post-Market), Oil India (post-market), Interglobe Aviation (post-market) 

Zinka Logistics: Lock in on 56 per cent of holdings to open today.

ABFRL: All existing F&O contracts will expire today due to the demerger ex-date tomorrow 
 
Ex-Date 
Page Industries: Interim Dividend of 200 
 
Asian markets

Asian stocks in Wednesday’s trade (May 21, 2025) traded in a tight range, with Japanese stocks retreating lower after weak trade data. At the last count, the key MSCI Asia ex Japan index traded higher by 0.77 per cent.