New Delhi, Mar 11: Indian stock indices traded largely steady at Monday's opening bell and continued to hover near their all-time highs they touched late last week.

The indices had been firm tracking firmness in most sectoral indices coupled with overall stable macroeconomic parameters.

At 9.36 am, Sensex was at 74,050.48 points, just 68.91 points down or 0.093 per cent, whereas Nifty was at 22,472.60 points, down 20.95 points or 0.093 per cent.

Sensex on Wednesday crossed the 74,000 mark for the first time. Foreign portfolio investors who had aggressively sold Indian stocks and turned net sellers in the Indian equity market in January 2024 became net buyers in February and March. This has also likely buoyed the stocks off late.

So far in March, they bought stocks in India worth Rs 11,823 crore, the latest data from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) showed.

The inflation data--both for retail and wholesale--set to be released later this week will be on investors' radar for fresh cues. Retail inflation data will be released on Tuesday.

Retail inflation in India eased in January to 5.10 per cent on an annual basis compared to a four-month high of 5.69 per cent in December. The retail inflation in India though is in RBI's 2-6 per cent comfort level but is above the ideal 4 per cent scenario.

"The dominant trend in the market in the near term is likely to be the underperformance of the broader market, particularly the small-cap space," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, at Geojit Financial Services.

"Since the market is scaling new highs consistently, the undertone of the market remains bullish and, therefore, investors should remain invested. Large caps are likely to witness buying on dips while the broader market will face headwinds."

(ANI)

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