SynopsisIndian stock markets surged today, with Sensex and Nifty posting significant gains driven by optimism surrounding a potential Iran-US peace deal. While banking and cement stocks led the rally, IT heavyweights saw minor declines. Broader markets experienced some weakness, but overall investor sentiment remained positive, buoyed by falling oil prices and a strengthening rupee.IANSIndian stock markets opened higher, with Sensex and Nifty recording significant gains, driven by renewed hopes for an Iran-US peace deal and declining oil prices.The Indian stock market opened in the green, with Sensex and Nifty recording sharp gains as renewed hopes for an Iran-US peace deal, and other factors boosted investor sentiment.After opening, Sensex gained nearly 400 points to hover around 75,552, while Nifty 50 gained over 88 points to 23,743. This came as India VIX, which measures volatility in markets, tumbled over 3% to 17.82 in the morning.ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and UltraTech Cement shares were the top gainers on Sensex, rising to 2%. Bucking the trend, Power Grid fell around 1% to lead losses. IT heavyweights including Infosys, Tech Mahindra and TCS also declined nearly 1% each.Broader markets, however, lost steam, with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices slipping into the red with marginal losses even as benchmarks hovered in the green. Sectorally, Nifty Private Bank gained more than 1% to lead gains, while Nifty Realty fell nearly 1%. Around 1,520 stocks advanced on NSE, while 1,186 declined and 84 remained unchanged."An important recent trend in the market is buy on dips and sell on rallies. Low openings are bought into and high openings are getting sold. Institutional activity must be playing a role in this. Retail traders have to handle this trend very deftly,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, who added that Brent crude declining to below $105 and rupee appreciating to 96.20 from 96.96 level are positive developments.Brisk activity is happening in the broader market, according to the analyst, who highlighted that small and midcaps coming out with good results and optimistic growth projections are getting positive response from the market. “FII selling and fears of more FII selling are weighing on largecaps despite their relatively cheaper valuations. Momentum is in SMIDs even though safety is in largecaps. This dichotomy will persist till FIIs turn buyers in India,” he further said.Iran-US peace deal hopesGlobal investor sentiment was boosted after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said discussions to end the war could progress, eyeing help from Pakistani mediators to help conclude an agreement. "I believe the Pakistanis will be travelling to Tehran today. So hopefully that'll advance this further," Rubio told reporters.However, both sides continue to remain stuck on Iran’s uranium stockpile and controls on the Strait of Hormuz. This comes as the ceasefire agreed on April 8 that halted the raging military operations continued to grow fragile, as leaders from Iran and US issued fresh threats. Tehran said it was reviewing US peace proposals but warned of a "forceful response" to any renewed attack. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile warned on Wednesday that negotiations were on the “borderline” between a deal and renewed strikes.Oil pricesOil prices rose on Friday morning, but remained below $105 per barrel. Brent crude futures gained around 2% to trade at $104 per barrel, while WTI Crude gained more than 1% to $97.45 per barrel in the morning.FII selling continuesForeign investors remained net sellers of Indian equities for the third consecutive session on Thursday, selling shares worth Rs 1,891 crore on Dalal Street. Foreign investors have mostly remained bearish on Indian markets this month so far, remaining net sellers of Indian equities in 10 out of 14 sessions so far in May.More to come...Read More News on(What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2025, Share Market on Budget 2025 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .) Subscribe to ET Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today. 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