Stock Market: Sensex Rises 121 Points, Nifty Trades Above 15,800 Amid Positive Cues

Stock update: On the BSE, Axis Bank was the lead gainer, up 1.55 per cent. The other gainers were Maruti, SBI, PowerGrid, Kotak Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance, Infosys, and others

Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Thursday gained during early trade tracking positive global cues.

At 10.15 am, the BSE Sensex rose 121 points to 53,148, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 15,827, up 28 points.

Among the 30-share BSE platform, Axis Bank was the lead gainer, up 1.55 per cent. The other gainers were Maruti, SBI, PowerGrid, Kotak Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance, Infosys, and others. On the flip side, TechM was the prime loser, down 0.87 per cent. BajajFinserv, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Airtel, M&M were the other losers.

In the broader markets, Midcap and Smallcap shares were trading on a strong note on Thursday as Nifty Midcap 100 edged 0.31 per cent and Smallcap climbed 0.71 per cent.

On NSE, 14 out of the 15 sector gauges were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank and Nifty Metal were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.52 per cent and 0.45 per cent, respectively.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,818 shares were advancing, while 586 were declining on the BSE.

In their previous session on Wednesday, Sensex had slipped 150 points (0.28 per cent) to close at 53,027, while Nifty had moved 51 points (0.32 per cent) lower to settle at 15,799.

Meanwhile, recovering from its record low, the rupee appreciated 13 paise to 78.90 against the US dollar on Thursday.

In the global arena, US stock futures slipped in early trade today amid worries over a recession. Trends on the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX Nifty) indicated a slightly higher start for the domestic indices.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 78.92 against the American dollar. In initial trade, the local currency witnessed a high of 78.90 and a low of 78.94 against the US dollar.

In the previous session, the rupee had closed at its all-time low of 79.03 against the US dollar.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.07 per cent to $116.34 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 851.06 crore, as per exchange data.