Stock Market Today: The domestic equity indices soared sharply in early trade on March 24 after US President Donald Trump announced a 5-day halt to his military action against Iran's power infrastructure, signalling some easing in the ongoing war in the Middle East. Boosted by the firm global cues and elevated investor sentiment post the Trump announcement, the BSE Sensex opened with a massive gap-up of over 1,500 points to 74,212.47 against last day's closing of 72,696.39. Similarly, Nifty 50 started trading at 22,878.45, up significantly as compared to the last day's closing of 22,512.65.

Boosted by the firm global cues and elevated investor sentiment post the Trump announcement, the BSE Sensex opened with a massive gap-up of over 1,500 points to 74,212.47 against last day's closing of 72,696.39. Similarly, Nifty 50 started trading at 22,878.45, up significantly as compared to the last day's closing of 22,512.65. At the time of writing, both the equity indices were trading nearly 1 per cent higher amid massive buying across the sector. At around 9:54 AM, Sensex was trading at 73,384.19, up 687.80 points or 0.95 per cent. Nifty was quoted at 22,719.50, up 206.85 points or 0.92 per cent.

"Politics is turning out to be as volatile as the market. President Trump signalled a 5-day halt to attacks on Iran and talked about ‘productive’ talks with the Iranian leadership. Immediately, Iran’s foreign ministry denied this. Later, they acknowledged that there are attempts to ‘get diplomacy going’ through the mediation of some countries. Brent crude crashed by 10% to $100 levels on news of positive initiatives to end the hostilities," said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.

In early trade, Brent Crude was trading in the $101- $105 per barrel range. At the time of writing, Brent Crude was at $103 per barrel. 

Top Gainers And Losers

In early trade, except for PowerGrid and ITC, all other stocks from the Sensex basket were in positive territory with Ultratech Cement, Indigo, Asian Paint, Kotak Bank, Eternal, BEL, Tech Mahindra, L&T, Adani Ports, Mahindra And Mahindra, ICICI Bank And Trent being the top gainers.

International Makets Trades Higher: Among Asian Markets, NIKKEI, HANG SENG, and KOSPI trade higher.